Antiphospholipid Syndrome post-vaccine condition and deaths (FOI)

Request

In view of the fact the contraindication of COVID vaccines for APL "Anti Phospholipid Syndrome" patients was only found out belatedly, can you provide all the data on the health of patients vaccinated who have APL?

A

How many patients with APL have died post vaccination and what was the cause of death?

B

How many have suffered a stroke, heart attack, heart failure, atrial fibrillation, DVT, PE, bowel ischaemic, valve dysfunction, dementia, vasculitis, renal failure or visual loss?

Response

The requested information is not available in a central record. Whilst details of diagnoses and co-morbid conditions will be documented within individual patient records, discerning the requested information would require significant manual interrogation and cross-referencing of mortality, morbidity and vaccination data. Additionally, in view of the estimated prevalence of Antiphospholipid Syndrome at 1 per 2,000 people, incidence of any of the specified conditions and / or deaths would likely necessitate disclosure control to avoid identification of individuals. A Scheduled Public Authority is not obliged to create new datasets or manipulate existing data to address Freedom of Information requests. Article 3 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 applies.

For reference, figures for data held on deaths from prior to 2023 are reported annually and are published on www.gov.je. The figures provided include deaths occurring in Jersey, plus deaths that occurred overseas to Jersey residents where the body was repatriated to Jersey.

Jersey Mortality Statistics 2020 (gov.je)

Further Mortality Report 2020 (gov.je)

Jersey Mortality Statistics 2021 (gov.je)

Jersey Mortality Report 2022 (gov.je)

Mortality data is taken from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions documented on the death certificate are coded using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10). From all of these, a cause of death is determined and codes are attributed for this and any underlying contributing causes, in line with ICD-10 coding standards.

Due to the delays which can sometimes occur with registration of deaths, it is standard for mortality data to be reported in arrears. Data may be affected upon conclusion of any inquests that remain open at the time of reporting. Deaths occurring during the calendar year 2023 will be reported on in September 2024, as per the Public Health Intelligence publication schedule linked below:

Public Health Intelligence publication release schedule (gov.je)

Any confirmed or perceived reactions to drugs or vaccines can be reported directly via the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) Yellow Card scheme, with a dedicated Coronavirus Yellow Card reporting site:

Official MHRA side effect and adverse incident reporting site for coronavirus treatments and vaccines (coronavirus-yellowcard.mhra.gov.uk)

The MHRA has published reports summarising information received via the Yellow Card scheme in respect of COVID-19 vaccines. The current and archived reports can be found at the following link:

Coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines adverse reactions (www.gov.uk)​

Article applied

Article 3 - Meaning of “information held by a public authority”

For the purposes of this Law, information is held by a public authority if –

(a)     it is held by the authority, otherwise than on behalf of another person; or

(b)     it is held by another person on behalf of the authority.