COVID-19 VACCINES
Yellow CARD analysis

Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves.
Introduction
Our analysis of the Medical & Healthcare products Regulation Agency (MHRA) Yellow Card Scheme for COVID-19 vaccines uses the publicly available reports that are released by the MHRA.
The MHRA recommends that any analysis of or commentary on its reports include its guidelines.
The MHRA has changed the format and frequency of reporting several times. It now releases compiled data monthly and takes several days from the “cut off” date to update its website.
Due to the limitations of the data and the guidelines, we have deliberately held back from drawing conclusions based on the data we have. Instead, we aim to provide insights into what we do know so that we, and you, can ask more meaningful questions of the MHRA, the government, vaccine manufacturers – and your own healthcare providers.What We Do Know
- How many 1st, 2nd & 3rd/booster doses of each vaccine brand have been administered
- How many adverse reactions have been reported
- How many deaths have been reported
- How each reaction & death has been classified in fine detail
What We Don't Know
- Whether a death or reaction reported was caused by the vaccine or a coincidence
- Whether a death or reaction report relates to a 1st, 2nd or booster dose
- Time between dose and death or reaction
- Time between death or reaction & reporting
- Demographic information of patient (gender, age, health status)*
- If a patient has had multiple reactions*
- Patterns of combinations of reactions*
- How many deaths & reactions haven't been reported
- Whether vaccine mixing has taken place
- If changes in storage guidance for vaccines have impacted reactions
- Whether patients reporting adverse reactions had previously had or tested positive for COVID-19
* From November 2022, MHRA is issuing the data in a new format and we will be exploring whether we can glean any new insights.
Yellow Card Summary to 22nd February 2023
Pfizer/ BioNTech | AstraZeneca | Moderna | Novavax | Unspecified | Totals | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Rollout Start Date | 08/12/20 | 04/01/21 | 07/04/21 | 03/02/22 | n/a | n/a |
First Doses Administered | 27.2 million | 24.9 million | 1.7 million | unknown | n/a | 53.8 million |
Second Doses Administered | 25.0 million | 24.2 million | 1.6 million | unknown | n/a | 50.8 million |
Boosters Administered | 44.6 million | 0.1 million | 22.6 million | 1,000 | n/a | 67.3 million |
Adverse Reactions | 544,439 | 927,512 | 161,794 | 183 | 7,429 | 1,641,357 |
Deaths | 897 | 1,364 | 130 | 0 | 68 | 2,459 |
How The Brands Compare
- Pfizer/BioNTech
- AstraZeneca
- Moderna
- Unspecified
Due to the small quantities currently associated with the Novavax brand, they do not show up on the pie charts
Doses
Adverse Reactions
Deaths
Top 20 Adverse Reactions
wdt_ID | Condition | No of Reactions | No of Deaths |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Headache | 130,345 | 1 |
2 | Fatigue | 93,518 | 1 |
3 | Pyrexia | 91,749 | 1 |
4 | Chills | 64,000 | 0 |
5 | Nausea | 57,734 | 0 |
6 | Pain in extremity | 46,144 | 2 |
7 | Myalgia | 45,668 | 0 |
8 | Dizziness | 43,338 | 0 |
9 | Arthralgia | 41,073 | 0 |
10 | Pain | 32,937 | 0 |
Top 20 Causes of Death
wdt_ID | Condition | No of Deaths |
---|---|---|
1 | Death (no further information available) | 631 |
2 | Pulmonary embolism | 176 |
3 | Myocardial infarction | 136 |
4 | Cardiac arrest | 113 |
5 | Cerebrovascular accident | 86 |
6 | Cerebral haemorrhage | 82 |
7 | Sudden death | 80 |
8 | COVID-19 | 75 |
9 | Thrombosis | 61 |
10 | Pneumonia | 58 |
REACTIONS & DEATHS BY TYPE (SOC)
wdt_ID | Type of Reaction (System Organ Class) | Reactions | Deaths |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Blood disorders | 29,954 | 28 |
2 | Cardiac disorders | 33,944 | 465 |
3 | Congenital disorders | 273 | 6 |
4 | Ear disorders | 21,413 | 1 |
5 | Endocrine disorders | 1,043 | 1 |
6 | Eye disorders | 26,695 | 0 |
7 | Gastrointestinal disorders | 147,217 | 36 |
8 | General disorders | 460,820 | 780 |
9 | Hepatic disorders | 964 | 11 |
10 | Immune system disorders | 7,249 | 7 |
Further Research & Resources
MHRA Resources
The MHRA now provides interactive charts to allow the public to explore the Yellow card data in more depth for themselves. Unfortunately the MHRA persists in siloing each vaccine variation (brand/type) into its own dataset so exploring consolidated data or comparing brands remains a challenge. Not all variations have the same reporting options available either.
Here is an overview of the information available from each of the menu options provided for each vaccine.
wdt_ID | Menu Option | Information Available |
---|---|---|
1 | Information | Brand Names, Data Extraction Date, Link to Safety Assessment Documents |
2 | Overview | Summary Data - Total Reports, Reactions etc, Links to Death Registrations for each country |
3 | COVID-19 Vaccinations (not available for all vaccines) | Weekly figures for doses administered & adverse reaction reports made - available as a chart or a table of numbers. |
4 | Report Profile | Interactive charts for demographic information (gender, age etc) - use the settings on the left of the screen to filter the data used to build the charts |
5 | Reaction Profile | Interactive charts for types of reactions (by System Organ Class) - use the settings on the left of the screen to filter the data used to build the charts |
Here are links to each of the vaccines variations’ reporting page.
UK Public Health Resources
If you’d like to find out more about COVID-19 vaccines, the weekly surveillance reports may prove useful:
Overseas Reaction Reporting
If you’d like to find out about adverse reactions recorded in other countries, here are some useful links: