You asked
FOI/2021/2338
I would like to know:
The number of VACCINATED people that have died from COVID-19 from November 2020 to May 2021.
The number of VACCINATED people that have been infected with COVID-19 from November 2020 to May 2021.
The number of real COVID-19 deaths from January 2020 to May 2021 (NOT INCLUDING 'DEATHS 'ANY CAUSE' WITHIN 28 DAYS OF A POSITIVE COVID TEST RESULT').
The number of vaccinated people who have been diagnosed with CANCER after being vaccinated from November 2020 to May 2021. (I personally already know of two.)
The number of vaccinated people who have been diagnosed with any serious illness (NOT CANCER), after being vaccinated, from November 2020 to May 2021.
The number of cancer patients who had their life saving surgery postponed due to lockdowns from November 2019 to May 2021. (I personally already know of one person whose surgery was postponed & the cancer has now spread.)
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
We are responsible for the production of data for England and Wales, this is driven by information collected from the death certificate at death registration. Therefore, we are unable to provide information for all of the UK. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.
Deaths involving COVID-19 after vaccination.
This information requires complex analysis linking vaccination records to death registrations. We are working on analysis on all aspects of the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality, which will be published in June. Once we have finalised these plans for England and Wales, a publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
You can find figures published by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here.
COVID-19 infections after Vaccination.
Unfortunately, we do not hold this information, PHE may be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at: wn_coronavirus@phe.gov.uk for COVID-19 related queries, or enquiries@phe.gov.uk for regular enquiries.
COVID-19 deaths within 28 days of positive test.
ONS and PHE COVID-19 deaths data are produced in different ways and have different purposes:
the daily COVID deaths counts reported on the government's COVID-19 dashboard (produced by PHE) shows deaths within 28 days of a first positive laboratory-confirmed test.
ONS weekly death registrations data for England and Wales, relate to the week that ended 11 days prior and are based on the cause of death reported on the death certificate, thereby not restricted to only deaths that showed a positive test.
More information can be found in a blog by Professor John Newton of Public Health England about the complexities of counting COVID-19 deaths and the different methods used.
Doctors are required by law to certify the cause of death 'to the best of their knowledge and belief'. That means they use their medical expertise to decide the cause based on symptoms, physical examination, hospital records, laboratory tests, and all the other information available. If death is certified by a coroner, the Coroner's Court follows legal rules of evidence when deciding the causes of death. It is not necessary for the certifier to be completely sure of their conclusion -- they decide based on the best available evidence. So, if a doctor thinks the death involved COVID-19 but is not sure, they can include it, along with words like 'possible' or 'suspected'. We code these differently, so we know what proportion of COVID-19 deaths are only suspected cases -- in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) definite COVID-19 has the code U07.1 and suspected COVID-19 has the code U07.2.
For March 2020 to June 2020, you can find a monthly breakdown of U0.71 and U0.72 ICD-10 codes with the Deaths Involving COVID-19 publication, in figure 3 "How many people have died from COVID-19".
From July 2020, you can find a monthly breakdown of U0.71 and U0.72 ICD-10 codes within the Monthly Mortality Analysis publication, in the Definition of COVID-19 paragraph.
From March 2020 to April 2021, of the 123,744 deaths due to COVID-19, 4,012 (3.2%) were classified as "suspected" COVID-19. Including all 139,016 deaths involving COVID-19, "suspected" COVID-19 was recorded on 3.3% (4,589 deaths) of all deaths involving COVID-19 in England and Wales. We use the term "due to COVID-19" when referring only to deaths with an underlying cause of death of COVID-19. When including all deaths that had COVID-19 mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, whether as an underlying cause or not, we use the term "involving COVID-19".
Cancer and serious illness diagnosis after vaccination and postponement of surgeries.
We do not have access to NHS patient care plans. Therefore, we do not hold the data you have requested.
NHS Digital may be better placed to answer your enquiry. They can be contacted via email at enquiries@nhsdigital.nhs.uk.