FOI Ref: FOI/2022/4719
You asked
Please can you provide:
The death total of those who died from the Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccination from the 1 January 2022 and up to the 26 December 2022.
The total deaths of non vaccinated people compared to those who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 from the 1 January 2022 and up to the 26 December 2022.
The number of still births for those who have been vaccinated and not vaccinated against COVID-19 for the period of the 1 January 2022 and up to the 26 December 2022.
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Deaths attributed to the COVID-19 vaccination
We hold the following analysis, which provides data showing deaths attributed to the COVID-19 vaccination up to November 2022: Monthly mortality analysis, England and Wales. Data for December will be published on 20 January 2023.
As of December 2021, there were 15 deaths registered, of which 10 have COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects as the underlying cause.
As of November 2022, there are 58 deaths registered, of which 50 have COVID-19 vaccines causing adverse effects as the underlying cause of death.
Therefore, there have been 43 registered deaths since January 2022 to November 2022.
COVID-19 deaths by vaccination status
We hold the following analysis, which looks at deaths from COVID-19 by vaccination status from January 2021 to May 2022: Deaths by vaccination status, England. Data is available monthly by vaccination status in table 8 of this publication.
The data are for England only, as vaccinations data for Wales is not yet available to be linked to the mortality dataset and the Public Health Data Asset (PHDA) covers England only.
Table 8 of this publication states that, from January 2022 to May 2022, there were 2,068 registered deaths defined as "unvaccinated" involving COVID-19. Please note, in April 2022 there were less than 3 deaths registered, as part of our disclosure control, we suppress these numbers and therefore this month has been counted as zero.
For January 2022 to May 2022 there were 15,480 registered deaths defined as "ever vaccinated" involving COVID-19. The "Ever vaccinated" category includes anyone who has had at least 1 dose of the vaccine, regardless of further doses. When the category of 'Ever Vaccinated' is included, the total counts in all the vaccination categories will add up to the 'Ever Vaccinated' totals.
Using the latest available data, from January 2021 to May 2022, the monthly Age Standardised Mortality Rates (ASMR) for unvaccinated and vaccinated people can be compared in Table 1 of the above dataset. For deaths due to all causes, the ASMR is higher for unvaccinated than vaccinated people in all months except May 2022 where there is an overlap in the confidence intervals of the ASMRs, although the ASMR for COVID-19 deaths remains higher for unvaccinated people. This does not infer a causal relationship between vaccination and death rates. When most of the population is vaccinated, most deaths are in vaccinated people. Sadly, people die all the time, of all causes, regardless of vaccination status.
There will be a delay in publishing the next edition of the deaths by vaccination status dataset as we require data on subsequent booster vaccinations and will be updating to the 2021 Census populations. The next publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
As such, the information you have requested for June to December 2022 is 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. 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.
Stillbirths
Stillbirth data forms part of the births cohort and is derived from information collected at the point of birth registration. We publish this annually as part of our Births in England and Wales release. Data for 2022 is provisionally scheduled to be published in July/August 2023.
We currently hold provisional birth registration data up to Quarter 2 (June 2022). Therefore, if you would like to obtain the data we hold prior to the July/August publicationd date, we can provide provisional stillbirth figures via our bespokse services. However, please note, as this data are provisional they may be subject to change.
Such services are subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreement to costs under the ONS Charging policy. If you would like to obtain a quote for this work, please contact the Health Analysis and Pandemic Insight (HAPI) Customer Services team on Health.Data@ons.gov.uk.
Unfortunately, we do not hold stillbirth data by vaccination status specifically, as the vaccination status of the mother is not recorded as part of the stillbirth registration process.