No local deaths from Covid jabs between 2020 and 2023
No local deaths were caused by Covid vaccines between 2020 and 2023, Guernsey’s Health & Social Care president said yesterday.
Deputy Al Brouard also reported that ‘more than one, but fewer than five’ deaths had had the vaccine listed as a ‘contributing or possibly contributing factor’.
He explained that the reason for the numerical vagueness was a determination not to identify any individuals for data protection reasons.
The subject came up because of a question posed by Deputy Andy Taylor, prompted by his having heard anecdotally that a death had been attributed to a Covid vaccination.
Deputy Brouard said he was ‘quite pleased with the actual numbers’, given the large number of vaccinations administered during the period.
Deputy John Gollop asked for an explanation of what factors would lead to a doctor defining a death as having been caused by a vaccine.
Deputy Brouard said this was difficult to assess.
Deputies Heidi Soulsby and Peter Roffey intervened to say, respectively, that those eligible for vaccines were safer to get them than to be exposed to the Covid virus itself and that any associated death statistics should be seen in the light of how many would have died of the virus in the absence of any vaccine.
Bailiff Sir Richard McMahon said their questions should strictly have been ruled out as not having arisen from the answer to the original question, but he had decided to allow them in order ‘to provide some comfort’ to anyone listening.
