The ratio of death after vaccination was highest amongst people choosing Sinopharm, official data shows

On 29th July 2022, we received data from the National Public Health Center about the vaccination history of coronavirus victims. The received dataset shows specifies the date of death, type of first, second and third doses as well as date of receiving the doses. In 2021, from the 28,287 coronavirus victims, 7531 received vaccination as well. Among the dead, Pfizer was the most common type of vaccine, since it was the first choice for most vaccinated. Within all doses administered, the ratio of dead receiving Sinopharm beforehand was highest in the first, second and third dose as well.

On 29th July, we received data from the National Public Health Center (NPHC) about the vaccination history of coronavirus victims. The received dataset shows specifies the date of death, type of first, second and third doses as well as date of receiving the doses.

We could only receive the dataset after modifying our request several times, as we had asked for data categories too revealing of personal data. The final dataset does not include any information about the age or gender of the deceased, nor about the location of death. We, however, received the time series data of coronavirus victims from 2021 specifying the type of doses with the date of each received dose.

Previously, we received spatial data about the victims of coronavirus, that showed where – in which settlement – there were deaths, and how many of those victims received no vaccination or one, two or three doses of vaccination.

From this dataset, we approximated the number of deaths from 2021, as settlements with less than three deaths were censored, and we had to calculate those numbers afterwards. The final number of 28,153 deaths was slightly off from the number of deaths previously announced on the official Hungarian coronavirus website.

The newly received dataset gave us the actual number of deaths from 2021:

28,287 people died from the coronavirus last year, whereas on the official website, 29,649 people was announced, a surplus of 1362 people.

People dying after two doses was higher in the fourth wave

The data shows us the number of daily victims receiving no vaccination, one, two or three doses of vaccination.

The number of vaccinated victims changed overtime. At the beginning of 2021, the number of victims receiving one dose was higher. 1640 people died sooner than 28 days after the first dose, before receiving their second dose. 1431 people died more than 28 days after their first dose, suggesting they did not intend to get the second jab.

Most vaccinated victims received two doses: 118 people died within two weeks after receiving the second dose, the time the vaccination is said to take effect. 2975 people did not take a third dose, they died four months after the second dose.

696 people died after three doses, among which 644 people died within, 52 people over four months of receiving the third dose.

The next chart shows the same data in more detail, where each line represents one victim, the length of the line being equal to the days passed between the first dose and death.

Most of vaccinated victims got either Pfizer or Sinopharm

At the beginning of 2021, when only a few types of western vaccination was available, the number of vaccinated victims with Pfizer or Moderna was higher. During the third wave, eastern vaccinations became available, namely the Chinese Sinopharm and the Russian Sputnik V.

With the severity of the third wave, the number and ratio of vaccinated victims rose as well. During this period, the number of days grew when most victims were previously vaccinated with Sinopharm. Towards the end of this wave, the number of deaths – and number of vaccinated deaths – lowered, though victims with Sinopharm was still the highest.

With the beginning of the fourth wave, the efficacy of the vaccine lowered against the more dominant Omicron variant. The ratio of first and second dose type is not much different here, and those receiving Pfizer is seemingly more represented, but it is because third doses became available with the beginning of August, and most of third doses were Pfizer.

We also show each victim on the next charts where each line represents one victim, with the length of the line being the time between the specific dose and death, but each line is coloured by the type of vaccine.

A lot of those only receiving one dose has died soon after receiving the dose – their death has most likely occurred during the third wave. After a longer period of time, we can see a high number of vaccinated victims receiving Janssen, as Janssen was a one-dose vaccine – their deaths happened during the fourth wave.

Those receiving only two doses, the “curve” is not so steep: some died at the end of the third wave, and after a calm summer period, the number of twice vaccinated deaths rose during the fourth wave.

Those receiving three doses have died continuously during the fourth wave, as vaccination only started just before the beginning of the fourth wave.

Within vaccinated deaths, those receiving one dose, Pfizer is the highest (45%), that is followed by Sinopharm (32%). The ratio within the second dose is similar: 49% Pfizer, 30% Sinopharm. The deaths receiving a third dose is dominated by Pfizer (85%), and only 8% received Sinopharm.

However, we must calculate the ratio of deaths within all first, second and third doses administered from each vaccine type. As there were a total of 2.2 million doses of Sinopharm administered – as opposed to 7.7 million doses of Pfizer –, the ratio within deaths is unequally higher. Within administered doses, Sinopharm comes out the highest among all three doses.

0.22 percent of people receiving Sinopharm as their first dose, 0.13 percent as second dose and 0.09 percent as third dose have died sometime after the vaccination, which is the highest ratio among all types of vaccines.

Finally, we visualised the relation between the three doses, as all previous charts defined these doses separately. There were many combinations of vaccine types in 2021. Some got a different dose for the second time than their first dose. For the third dose, almost all types could have been chosen, increasing the number of combinations significantly. We illustrate the routes of combinations on the next chart. Starting from the center of the chart, one can see the many different options for choosing the three doses. Among the lines, each bigger dot represent a received dose. Where there is only one dot, one dose was administered. Two dots represent two doses, and where there are three dots, that path represents victims dying after three doses of the vaccine. 

Translated by Krisztián Szabó. The original  Hungarian version of this story was written by Krisztián Szabó and can be found here.