MPs and peers have accused the Health Secretary of withholding data that could link the Covid vaccine to excess deaths, and criticized a “wall of silence” on the topic. A group of 21 parliamentarians from four parties have written to the Health Secretary, as well as the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) to request the data.
The group believes that potentially critical data, which maps the date of people's Covid vaccine doses to the date of their deaths, have been released to pharmaceutical companies but not made available to the public. They argue that this data should be released in an anonymized form to help reassure the public and address concerns about the vaccines. The MPs and peers warn that withholding this data is fueling hesitancy and mistrust in public health messaging.
The letter was organized by the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on pandemic response and recovery and the campaign group UsForThem. It includes signatories from various parties, including Conservative MPs Miriam Cates, Danny Kruger, Philip Davies, and Karl McCartney, as well as Labour MP Graham Stringer.
The leader of Reform UK, Richard Tice, has also committed his party to a public inquiry into excess deaths and alleged Covid vaccine harms. Tice believes there is a serious problem with thousands more people dying than expected and suggests that side effects of the vaccines could be responsible.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has also come under scrutiny for overestimating excess deaths in the first year of the Covid pandemic. The ONS recently updated its methodology for calculating excess deaths to include current death rates and population changes. However, academics from the University of Oxford have warned that the new modeling reveals a major drop in expected deaths in 2020, making it appear that more people had died than normal during the pandemic.
The DHSC has stated that they are committed to data transparency and publish a wide range of data on excess mortality. They work closely with the MHRA and UKHSA to analyze trends and adjust public health interventions as necessary.
In conclusion, the demand for data linking the Covid vaccine to excess deaths highlights the ongoing concerns and debates surrounding the vaccines' safety and efficacy. The call for transparency and the release of data in an anonymized form aims to address public hesitancy and ensure that accurate information is available to inform public health decisions.
