In Scotland deaths are referred to the Procurator Fiscal rather than a coroner and in these cases the death and a provisional cause must be registered within 8 days and may be updated later after the investigation is complete.įor this reason, we would expect the number of registered deaths to increase, especially for England, Wales and Northern Ireland where there is a lag between when a death occurs and when it is registered. Although this information takes longer to come through, it is the best way to know if the vaccine was part of the chain of events that led to the death. Deaths can take several months to be registered if they are investigated by a coroner. This information will take longer to come through because deaths that go to a coroner for investigation tend to take longer to be registered. If the death is certified by a coroner (as it needs further investigation), the Coroner’s Court follows legal rules of evidence when deciding the causes of death. This is slightly different in Scotland where it is investigated by the Procurator Fiscal.įor 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. That means they use their medical expertise to decide the cause based on symptoms, physical examination, hospital records, laboratory tests, and all the other information available. When a death is registered the information, including causes involved in the death, is sent to the different statistical agencies across the UK (ONS, NRS and NISRA).ĭoctors are required by law to certify the cause of death ‘to the best of their knowledge and belief’. In the course of such a large-scale programme, this could add up to a large number. Some people will, sadly, die by chance shortly after receiving a vaccine, so the death can be mistakenly attributed to the COVID-19 vaccination by a family member or carer. The COVID-19 vaccination programme led to a very large number of people receiving vaccinations in a relatively short period. A summary of reports about COVID-19 vaccines from the Yellow Card scheme is provided weekly where they further explain the scheme and note the importance that the information is not interpreted as proven side effects. The usefulness of the Yellow Card Scheme is that anyone can report their symptoms and the information can be provided quickly as it is based on notifications, meaning that people can provide information on a possible side effect as soon as it occurs. As the information is self-reported, it means that the suspected side effects are not always proven and some of the side effects may have occurred regardless of the vaccine. This includes deaths, which are reported by others on behalf of the deceased person. Yellow Card is a website where any member of the public or health professional can report any suspected side effect. MHRA’s role is to continually monitor the safety of any medicine or vaccine once they are approved for use. There are two main sources for obtaining the number of deaths where the vaccine played a part these are the Yellow Card Scheme by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) and death registrations analysis produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), National Records of Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA).īoth sets of statistics are important but they have different purposes and use different sources. However, there has also been some inaccurate speculation about the number of people who have died as a result of an adverse reaction to one of the vaccines. They showed the risk of death involving COVID-19 was consistently lower for people who had received two vaccinations compared to one or no vaccination. Last month we published our first statistics on the number of fully vaccinated people who had subsequently died from COVID-19. But how many people have died as a result of a vaccine and why do different sources of data tell a different story? Sarah Caul takes a look at what the data are showing us. There has been widespread speculation about the side-effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, including, tragically, deaths.
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