How a death is determined to be caused by a vaccine

FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3613​

You asked

Please supply the following information:

1. Explanations as to how a death is determined to be caused by a vaccine, such as the Pfizer or Astrozeneca? i.e. what factors or parameters (please include all factors and parameters) determine such a death has been attributed to - or found to be caused by - a vaccine?

2. Specifically relating to Covid-19 vaccinations, please inform me as to whether or not there is a time period after a vaccine injection is administered when a death can be attributed to a vaccine? e.g. within 24 hours only.

If there is a time period, could you please specify this.

i.e. Could a death be determined to be caused by a vaccine even if the death is after an initial 24 hour or 48 hour period, e.g. three weeks after the vaccine injection, or three months after the vaccine injection, or a longer duration than this?

And what is the maximum length of time after an injection is administered that a death could be attributed to a vaccine?

We said

Thank you for your enquiry.

We do not assign causes of death. We take the information on the death certificate and process it. Please see section six of our User guide to mortality statistics - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk) for further information.

We determine a death to be caused by the COVID-19 vaccination if the underlying cause of death identified on the death certificate is recorded as the ICD-10 code U12.9 (COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects in therapeutic use, unspecified). A death can be considered to involve this cause if it is mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, not just as the underlying cause.

Using Table 12 of our Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk), between March 2020 to December 2021, there were 15 deaths in England that involved COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects in therapeutic use, unspecified, of which 10 were due to this cause. No such deaths were recorded in Wales in this same period.

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.

Further information on the guidance given when completing a death certificate can be found in this Completing a medical certificate of cause of death (MCCD) publication.