Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of the article in the British Medical Journal entitled Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is “likely” responsible for deaths of some elderly patients, Norwegian review finds, published on 27 May 2021; and if she will have discussions with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency on the contents of the report.

Following the initial roll out of the COVID-19 vaccination programme in December 2020, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) had a comprehensive surveillance strategy in place, enabling continual close monitoring of emerging safety evidence including studies, published literature, and data arising from the widespread use in the United Kingdom and globally. This included the article and Norwegian reports highlighted. The MHRA communicates safety advice based upon consideration of the totality of evidence from all relevant information sources, rather than the strengths and limitations of individual data sources.