Vaccine Deaths - Facts
An explanation from the Office of National Statistic on the Yellow Card Scheme and why you might have heard that COVID vaccine deaths are much higher than they actually are.
From a blog by Sarah Caul, Head of Mortality Analysis at ONS
There has been widespread speculation about the side-effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines, including, tragically, deaths. 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.
Last month we published our first statistics on the number of fully vaccinated people who had subsequently died from COVID-19. 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. 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.
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).
Both sets of statistics are important but they have different purposes and use different sources.
What is the Yellow Card Scheme?
MHRA’s role is to continually monitor the safety of any medicine or vaccine once they are approved for use. Yellow Card is a website where any member of the public or health professional can report any suspected side effect. This includes deaths, which are reported by others on behalf of the deceased person. 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.
Read the full blog here
