FOI Reference: FOI/2021/3091
You asked
- How many deaths have been recorded within 21 days of a vaccine between the exact following dates 01/07/2021 and 01/09/2021?
- The number of COVID-19 cases between the dates of 1/7/21 and 1/9/21 by age (18+) and vaccination status.
- How many peer-reviewed studies have been performed on whether a Covid-19 vaccine reduces the risk of infection and transmission of Covid-19 in a person compared to an unvaccinated person.
We said
Thank you for your request.
1)
We have published the following release Deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status, England: deaths occurring between 2 January and 2 July 2021 which is an analysis of deaths involving COVID-19 by vaccination status that occurred between 1 January and 2 July 2021 in England. This is the latest analysis available.
The next publication will cover the dates requested and we have a provisional publication date of 1 November 2021. The finalised publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. Furthermore, as a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
The UK Health Security Agency also publish a weekly surveillance report looks at the impact on hospitalisations, infection, vaccine effectiveness and mortality, which may be helpful.
2)
The COVID-19 Infection Survey is a household survey that estimates the number of people testing positive for infection and for antibodies in the UK. Our statistics refer to the number of current COVID-19 infections within the population living in private residential households. We exclude those in hospitals, care homes and/or other communal establishments. In communal establishments, rates of COVID-19 infection may be different.
You can find the estimated percentage of the population testing positive for COVID-19 by age in the datasets accompanying our bulletins. For England, estimates by grouped age/school year can be found in **tab 1h. **For Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland, estimatesby single year of age can be found in **tab 1e**. You may also be interested in our technical article on positivity after vaccination.
Please note, these estimates for percentages testing positive by age and by vaccination status are based on the sample in our survey. Your query may be better placed with the UK Health Security Agency (formerly Public Health England) who are responsible for official data on the number of daily positive cases (pillars 1 and 2) and vaccinations reported on the GOV.UK coronavirus dashboard. They can be contacted via email at Informationrights@ukhsa.gov.uk.
3)
We do not hold data on how many peer reviewed studies have been undertaken on COVID-19 vaccinations. However, you may be interested in our technical article on the impact of vaccination on testing positive in the UK and the peer-reviewed article by our partners at the University of Oxford on vaccine effectiveness against new COVID-19 infections in the UK. All articles by our academic partners at the University of Oxford can be found here.
Further information and an overview of data about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from the Office for National Statistic (ONS) and other sources can be found in our Coronavirus (COVID-19) latest insights tool.
If you have any further queries relating to this data please feel free to contact Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.