You asked
1. Could you please provide the total number of deaths for any reason within 28 days of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine from the start of the vaccination roll out date?
Please provide this information in a monthly format showing the above figures for January, February, March (and April if possible) this year.
2. For the year of 2019, could you please provide to total number of deaths for any reason within 28 days of being diagnosed with Influenza A,B or C. Any cases where an influenza virus was detected after death (i.e. the coroner has identified it) should also be counted towards the total figures
Please provide this information for the months of January, February, March and April in the year 2019
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Deaths after receipt of COVID-19 vaccine
You can find the number of deaths involving COVID-19 (not restricted to first or second vaccination) in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis dataset, these include figures for deaths involving adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination. There are currently 2 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 June 2021.
Deaths within a period of time 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 a publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
As such, this information 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.
You can find figures published by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) here.
Influenza deaths
ONS have also produced a back series as part of our 21st century mortality, which contains all-cause mortality data by ICD code, age and sex, 2001-2019, England and Wales.
The ICD codes used to code Influenza are J09-J11. You can search this in column A.
Annual data is also available from our NOMIS Webservice for 2019-2013.
You can also find information on Figure 6 of our Excess winter mortality in England and Wales on Influenza like illnesses (ILI). Data is available from 2011 to 2020.
Unfortunately, we do not hold published influenza mortality data by month.
In order to fulfil this request, we would need to create bespoke analysis, which we are not obligated to do under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. We therefore consider this to be information not held. However, the information you have requested may be available to commission as bespoke analysis. Such services would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there may be a charge for this work which would be subject to our charging policy.