SA FOI Raw Data: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Bureaucrats.

SA ICD code raw data, plus the amazing journey to obtain such.

Relating to the first SADS Substack release “the curious case of South Australian data”, the SA Data Scrutiny (SADS…) mousketeers/mouse army thought it would be prudent to upload the Freedom of Information (FOI) for those interested (more FOIs will be uploaded as possible). Most of the FOIs were rather difficult to obtain as outlined below - is there something they don’t want us to know…?
The process involves the initial application, in this case, 23rd of October, 2022…. which is more often than not ignored entirely - as in no response, nada, nil, zip, crickets (yum…. for a mouse…). After 30 days, for the more persistent mice, one must then apply for an internal review which, you guessed it, is more often than not ignored entirely - again…. Then, with the enduring patience of a zen mouse floating around in the lotus position in zero G, you wait another 14 days and apply for an external review with the SA Ombudsman, who is apparently and not unsurprisingly frustrated with SA Health’s lack of, or slow, responses to FOIs. It’s at this point you get a reply. Then, you must wait for the Ombudsman, who actually acts as efficiently as possible, and who will hopefully at some point approve of your freedom to have the information your heart so desires.

Trust the process… The Ombudsman’s record of my application.

You would think at this point that it would be over and your ticket to Nirvana is assured?! You’d be wrong. Once the Ombudsman gives approval, SA Health (in the case of the full state ICD code data-set FOI) then has the option to make you wait another 30 days - it’s a lot of time running in the mouse wheel.

As a persistent mouse, an enquiry was made to the Ombudsman as to when the data-set could be expected, given that they have a 30-day time limit according to the Freedom of Information Act 1991 and… it was well overdue. Time is money, and all of that.. The reply received:

… “no reason”, you say? Note the date (23 January)

I’m not going to lie... At this point, the cheese that I craved was like a yellow mirage I could only hallucinate over. On the outside, I maintained composure… but inside, my mask of sanity was slowly slipping (to poorly paraphrase Patrick Bateman). Considering that I’m referring to American Psycho, I feel it’s only fair to point out that I’m not the same person mouse who wrote the prior masterpiece on SA Health data. So, what happened next,…?

SA Health made me wait until the very last hour (and 1 minute)!

Ouch! So, as a member mouse of the public (even though I am not equal to the vaccinated class) I have a right to access information via the FOI Act. There’s a 30-day time limit. However, it ultimately took around 91 days for me to receive the data-set…

SA FOI ACT 1991 14(2)

Tell me it’s over, you say? Unfortunately not! Oh, the data-set was received.… sure…. 1 hour before the deadline 19 days after the Ombudsman office stated there’s “no reason” why the information couldn’t have been accessed then. But!!!

The data-set was provided in a clearly photocopied or snipped image PDF basically impossible for OCR to convert into a digestible and usable/analysable format. The file below is what was received, minus the first page which was a cover letter to mouself. As you can see, every second page appears very grainy. This is because every second image in the PDF is a different format - now why would they possibly do that?

Determination Foi2022 00084 1

8.27MB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

No wonder OCR was freaking out..

So… call in a certain member of the mouse army, who went to work and was able to jump off the wheel, use their mouse paws to write a program, to read the PDF’s and convert it Excel.

To check the data quality, the rest of the SA mice for the SADS team then went through all 7000+ rows of data and manually checked to ensure the data converted was all correct….. The only way I was able to maintain focus was with a contraption (not unlike that from A Clockwork Orange) and lemonade ice-blocks (which gave a dopamine hit by proxy).

As it happened: Can you spot the error between OCR and the junk SA Health handed over? Can you spot my oral fixation?

Eventually, after all that…. the data-set was ready! Thankfully other members of the SADS mouse army had already started writing…… I protested to both the Ombudsman and SA Health relating to the format of the provided data-set.

On the 10th of February, after all that effort… an .xlsx file was finally received from SA Health….. The final slap in the face really as it was no longer needed, the analysis had been done, and I had no reason to expect I’d ever actually receive it… nor did the Ombudsman say it needed to be.

Data Foi2022 00084

185KB ∙ XLSX file

Download

Download

Still, as diligent mice, the SA Health Excel data-set eventually received was checked against the one used for analysis to ensure accuracy. Yeah SA Health, you can try and stop 1 mouse, but not a whole mouse army…

So, did SA Health intentionally wait until the last hour? Did they intentionally release the data in an unusable format? What do you think?

Or is it that SA Health have taken social distancing to the next level - is it 1.5metres for an airborne virus when standing and 90 days for a deplorable, unvaccinated questioner of criminal corporations/novel “vaccine” coerced on the masses?

14 days to “stop the spread” and 90 days to suppress the truth?

If we keep hitting them with FOIs do they develop an IgG4 dominant response? No, because I'm a mouse, not an mRNA shot.

So ends that adventure. Until next time, “take care of yourself and each other” - Jerry Springer.