New Zealand's Ministry of Health has introduced a new mechanism to monitor cases of adverse reactions to Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines.

Last week, the Post Vaccine Symptom Check mobile-based survey was launched. According to a media release, the ministry is randomly selecting up to 10% of citizens who have received a dose of the said vaccine brand to participate in the survey.

A text message will be sent six days after the administration of the first dose and 43 days after the second dose to ask whether they had any adverse reactions to the vaccine. Receivers can simply reply to the message with a "yes", "no" or "stop" to opt out. A unique link to the survey will be sent to willing participants. 

The survey will run daily throughout the remainder of the country's COVID-19 Immunisation Programme. 

WHY IT MATTERS

The survey was launched to gather more data on reactions to the Pfizer vaccine. "Data collected from the survey will be grouped and anonymously displayed on the Medsafe website once there is enough data to report, likely by late September," said Dr Tim Hanlon, the country's COVID-19 vaccination programme General Manager for Post Event.

The ministry said it already has a reporting system in place for monitoring reactions to any vaccine. Both patients and healthcare professionals can submit reports through the Centre for Adverse Reactions Monitoring (CARM).

"We ask that everyone who receives a text message participates, even if they haven’t had a reaction. If you don’t receive a text, you can report any reactions to the Pfizer vaccine through the CARM website or by calling Healthline, even if they are mild," Dr Hanlon said.

THE LARGER CONTEXT

The health ministry recently reported its first death linked to the Pfizer vaccine. It said a woman who had received her Comirnaty shot – the vaccine brand by Pfizer-BioNTech – died due to myocarditis, a rare side effect of the vaccine. 

The Pfizer brand is the main vaccine being rolled out in New Zealand. Other brands being offered to citizens include Janssen by Johnson&Johnson, Novavax and AstraZeneca. 

As of 29 August, New Zealand has administered about 3.28 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, fully vaccinating around 1.15 million people.