FOI Ref: FOI/2022/3856
You asked
Please supply deaths due to the COVID-19 vaccination in a time series format for 2019 to present (03/02/2022).
We said
Thank you for your request.
Deaths involving the COVID-19 vaccination
Our mortality data is derived from the death certificate, using information received at the point of death registration. For the vaccine to be mentioned on the death certificate the medical professional certifying the death must have believed, to the best of their knowledge, that the vaccine was part of the events that led to the death. Deaths reported as due to or involving the COVID-19 vaccination are recorded using ICD-10 code U12.9.
We report deaths attributed to adverse reaction to the COVID-19 vaccination monthly within our Monthly Mortality Analysis. The latest data available is December 2021.
There are currently 15 deaths registered in England and Wales with the aligning ICD codes for this, 10 of these deaths have ICD-10 U12.9 as the underlying cause.
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.
We are unable to publish this data to a smaller timeseries owing to the small numbers as it is 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 individuals can be identified, we find that Section 44 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.
If you would like to discuss this request further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.