Why Vaccine Coverage is not quite as good as the Jersey statistics say

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Someone posted on Facebook: "I personally know of 4 people in the 55-59 age group who are unvaccinated, yet it states that 100 % are !"

Actually the little wavy line just before means "approximately".

But it is likely that vaccine coverage may not be quite as high, especially in the lower bands.

I first saw this with a statistical anomaly with Gibralter, where the coverage was 118%! The reason for this peculiar 118 per cent, was that it included the fully vaccinated Spaniards who travel across its border each day for work.

The Jersey statistics don't go that high - but they do include seasonal workers! This means they are flawed. And the numbers are not forthcoming! 

We have no idea how many seasonal workers have taken up the vaccine, but if they have they will be included in the numbers per band, which means that percentages are higher than it would be because the percentage is number of shots divided by estimate of current (not seasonal) population.

My gut feeling is that there will be less seasonal workers anyway in the older age bands, so it is in the lower age bands that the data is skewed upwards.

FOI Request:

1 Are seasonal workers in Jersey eligible for vaccines in Jersey? If so, what is the eligibility criteria for this?

Seasonal workers are eligible for vaccines in Jersey. Eligibility is the same as for other islanders, determined by JCVI (Joint Committee on Vaccines and Immunisations) guidance, MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) regulation and Jersey Public Health policies.

2 If so, and they are not included in Island census figures, is it possible to easily tell many

seasonal workers have been vaccinated? Either figures or estimate?

Following an extensive review of systems, it has been concluded that the information on vaccination status, as requested, is not held in recorded form. To answer the request, the data would need to be extracted from various sources and manipulated, aside from taking more than the prescribed 12.5 hours to do that work, the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 does not require a Scheduled Public Authority to manipulate data in order to provide a response. Article 16 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has therefore been applied.

3 If it is relatively easy, how many? Note: the third question is to ensure that excessive time is not spent on this question.

Please see response to question (2).