FOI Ref: FOI/2021/2729
You asked
Please supply the number of adverse reactions and deaths due to every vaccination, and suspected fault of the vaccinations, in the UK for the years 2016 to present.
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the provision of mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. Therefore, we do not hold the requested data for the whole of the UK. Should you wish to obtain this data from NRS and NISRA, they can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:
a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or
b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury
We can identify deaths where adverse reaction to a vaccine was recorded as the underlying or contributory cause of death, as these deaths will be coded on the death certificate in line with the ICD-10 lookup. There are a number of different ICD-10 codes in relation to adverse reaction to vaccines, these are available via the ICD-10 online lookup. Therefore, you would need to identify the codes that are attributed to adverse reactions to a vaccination.
We have an interactive web service available via NOMIS, which provides death registration statistics (numbers and rates) for England and Wales, for the period of 2013 to 2020, by age group, sex, underlying cause of death and area of usual residence. To create tabulations in NOMIS, please follow these instructions:
- Select the geography (England and Wales, regional or by local authority).
- Select Age -- All ages or 5-year age bands.
- Select Gender -- Total or Male/Female
- Select rates -- All deaths, rates or percentage of population for example.
- Select cause of death (ICD10 code search is available).
- Select format (Excel or CSV for example)
However, the deaths due to adverse reactions of vaccinations for England and Wales, 2016 to 2020 may be available to commission as bespoke analysis. Such services would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there may be a charge for this work which would be subject to our charging policy.
You can find the number of deaths involving adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination (not restricted to the first or second wave) in Table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset,. There are currently 4 deaths registered with the aligning ICD-10 codes for this (U12.9). The latest data available is for June 2021.
We are currently working on analysis on all aspects of the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality, including:
- Information regarding deaths after vaccination from any cause.
- Information regarding deaths involving or due to COVID-19 after receiving COVID-19 vaccination.
This requires complex analysis linking vaccination records to death registrations. The provisional release date for these publications is August 2021. Once publication dates are finalised, they will be announced on our Release Calendar.
You can find figures for the period December 2020 to June 2021, published by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), here.
NHS Digital may be better placed to provide information on non-fatal adverse reactions to a vaccination. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.
If you require any further information about this, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.