You asked
"I would like a full list of all recorded and reported COVID-19 vaccine injuries in the UK for all vaccinations from the date the vaccinations began. This includes all deaths reported after the vaccine was administered. Also any further details pertaining to any of these injuries and deaths."
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.
You can find the number of deaths involving adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination (not restricted to 28 days or first or second vaccination) in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset. There are currently 3 deaths registered with the aligning ICD codes for this. However, should this change, they will be updated in this table. This publication is due to be updated in July 2021.
It may also be of interest to know that we are currently working on analysis on all aspects of the relationship between COVID-19 vaccination and mortality, which involves complex analysis linking vaccination records to death registrations. This analysis will be published soon and, once we have finalised these plans, a publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
We do not hold information on COVID-19 vaccine injury. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) may be better placed to assist. Their website can be accessed here.
How ONS mortality data is collected and coded
ONS mortality data is taken from the information provided on death certificates. The doctor or coroner certifying a death can record more than one health condition or event on the form. The medical certificate of cause of death has two parts, Part 1 contains the sequence of health conditions or events leading directly to death, while Part 2 can contain other health conditions that contributed to the death but were not part of the direct sequence. For statistical purposes one of the health conditions on the certificate is chosen as the 'underlying cause of death'. The underlying cause of death is defined as the health condition or event that started the train of events leading to death and is worked out according to rules from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
Vaccinations of any nature are not recorded on the death certificate as a matter of course, unless the certifying doctor believed the death was directly caused by the vaccination. If the words 'reaction to COVID vaccine' etc are mentioned, or there is a sequence shown of e.g. 'COVID vaccine -- caused -- blood clot' then we would apply the specific code U12.9 meaning 'adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccination'. This is a recently implemented WHO International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision ICD-10 code. The codes for this are:
- U12 COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects in therapeutic use
- U12.9 COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects in therapeutic use, unspecified
Note:
This code is to be used as an external cause code (i.e. as a sub category under Y59, "Other and unspecified vaccines and biological substances""). In addition to this, a code from another chapter of the classification should be used indicating the nature of the adverse effect.
The description of this cause of death is:
- Correct administration of COVID-19 vaccine in prophylactic therapeutic use as the cause of any adverse effect
When ONS receive the data, we use computer algorithms to apply rules which increase the consistency and improve the international and temporal comparability of mortality statistics. Therefore, we can only report on what is recorded on the death certificate during this process. More information about the information included on the death certificate and our death registration process can be found in our mortality statistics user guide, accessible via the following link: User Guide to Mortality Statistics.