Adverse reactions, injuries or deaths within 21 days of a COVID-19 vaccination

FOI Ref: FOI/2021/3336​

You asked

Please supply the total number of adverse reactions, injuries or deaths within 21 days of a COVID-19 jab to date (9 December 2021). Please supply a breakdown of the age range and demographic of the injured.

We said

Thank you for your enquiry regarding adverse reactions, injuries, and deaths within 21 days of the COVID-19 vaccination.

All cause deaths and COVID-19 deaths within 21 days of COVID-19 vaccination

We hold the following analysis Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England which is an analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 and all cause deaths by vaccination status that occurred between 1 January and 31 October 2021 in England. The data are for England only, as vaccinations data for Wales is not yet available to be linked to the mortality dataset and the Public Health Data Asset (PHDA) covers England only. Therefore, we consider data for Wales as information not held.  

Please note, these deaths are not attributed to the COVID-19 vaccination. This publication shows deaths by vaccination status.

Notes:

1. Age-standardised mortality rates per 100,000 person-years, standardised to the 2013 European Standard Population using five-year age groups from those aged 10 years and over. "Person-years" consider both the number of people and the amount of time spent in each vaccination status. For more information, see our methodology article.

2. Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures based on deaths that occurred between 1 January and 31 October 2021 and were registered by 10 November 2021. These figures represent death occurrences, there can be a delay between the date a death occurred and the date a death was registered. More information can be found in our impact of registration delays release.

3. ASMRs are calculated using the Public Health Data Asset, a linked dataset of people resident in England, who could be linked to the 2011 Census and GP Patient Register. This dataset covers approximately 79% of the population in England aged 10+.

4. Deaths were defined using the International Classification of Diseases, tenth revision (ICD-10). Deaths involving the coronavirus (COVID-19) are defined as those with an underlying cause, or any mention of, ICD-10 codes U07.1 (COVID-19 virus identified) or U07.2 (COVID-19, virus not identified). Please note, this differs from the definition used in the majority of mortality outputs.

5. While differences in the ages of people in the vaccination status groups are accounted for, other differences, such as health, ethnicity, or level of deprivation, may remain, which can affect the mortality rates.

Age breakdown of this data is available in Table 5 of the dataset.

Whilst we receive information on social demography from the PHDA, we have not produced analysis including this information, therefore we do not hold this information with demographic breakdown of deaths by vaccination status and age. To fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill including complex data linkage between NHS data and Census data to create a bespoke analysis. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information to respond to requests.

A further release is provisionally scheduled for February 2022, final date of publication will be announced on Release Calendar.

Vaccine injuries and adverse reactions

Unfortunately, we do not hold this information. Adverse reactions and injuries are reported using the Yellow Card Scheme. Please contact Medicines and Healthcare Regulatory Agency for further information. They can be contacted on info@mhra.gov.uk.

Deaths attributed to adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccination

You can find the number of deaths attributed to adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset.  

There are currently 13 deaths registered in England and Wales with the aligning ICD codes for this, 9 of these deaths have ICD10 U12.9 as the underlying cause.

Due to the small numbers involved, we are unable to provide any further disaggregation of this data as it would be considered personal information. Section 39 of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) renders it an offence to disclose information held by the Statistics Board for statistical purposes that would identify an individual or a body corporate. As we are prohibited by law from publishing statistics in which individual businesses or persons can be identified, we find that Section 44(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies. Section 44 is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.

However, please note that these are deaths across all age groups since the rollout of the vaccination in December 2020 and there are no deaths registered under the age of 35.