You asked
Please can you provide us via email with details of those who have died following a flu or COVID-19 vaccination since September 2020.
Please provided where possible showing demographic, ethnic background, age, sex and identifying if they had ANY form of disability including disability categorisation.
It has been published that those with a learning disability are at least six times more likely to die from COVID-19, we are interested to see if any similarities can be found with having received a recent vaccine?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
Our mortality data is taken from the information provided on death certificates.
The death certificate used in England and Wales is compatible with that recommended by WHO. It is set out in two parts. Part I gives the condition or sequence of conditions leading directly to death, while Part II gives details of any associated conditions that contributed to the death but are not part of the causal sequence.
When ONS receives 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.
COVID-19 vaccine
You can find the number of deaths involving COVID-19 in table 12 of our Monthly Mortality Analysis, these include figures for deaths involving adverse reactions to the COVID-19 vaccination. There are currently 0 deaths registered with the aligning ICD codes for this. However, should this change, they will be updated in this table.
Influenza vaccine
In these circumstances a death that was a consequence of a reaction to a viral vaccine, the underlying cause would be coded under Y590: Other and unspecified vaccines and biological substances.
If someone died of anaphylaxis which was a result of a viral vaccine the death would be coded as Y590 (underlying cause), with an additional secondary cause code of T886: Anaphylactic shock due to adverse effect of correct drug or medicament properly administered.
However, there is no code that exists specifically for influenza vaccinations. Therefore, we do not hold the information you have requested.
We have not yet conducted complete analysis for 2020 mortality data by cause code. The annual dataset for 2020 is scheduled for release in summer 2021.
COVID-19 related deaths by disability status
Unfortunately, we do not hold data of those with learning disabilities who have been vaccinated.
However, here are some links to our most recent dataset and article for COVID-19-related deaths by disability status, England. Disability status is not something that is recorded on the death certificate. We have produced this data by using self-reported disability information from Census 2011 and conducted linkage exercises to produce this dataset and the estimated number of COVID-19 related deaths by disability status:
Dataset: COVID-19 related deaths by disability status, England
We are currently developing our analytical plans with an intention to publish more detailed vaccination information soon. Once we have finalised these plans a publication date will be announced on our Release Calendar.
If you would like to discuss these statistics further, please contact health.data@ons.gov.uk.