Until Friday, Norway had used only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Photographer: Jean-Francois Monier / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: Jean-Francois Monier / AFP / Getty Images
Norwegian health officials say there is no evidence of a direct link between the recent series of deaths among elderly people vaccinated against Covid-19 and the vaccine they received.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency is trying to resolve fears that getting the vaccine could be too risky, after 33 people in the country aged 75 or more died after vaccination, according to the latest figures from the agency. Everyone was already seriously ill, he said.
“Clearly, Covid-19 is much more dangerous for most patients than vaccination,” said Steinar Madsen, medical director at the Norwegian Medicines Agency, by telephone on Monday. “We are not alarmed.”
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Norway’s initial reports made international headlines as the world looked for the first signs of potential side effects from vaccines. As of Friday, Norway had used only the vaccine provided by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, and companies are now working with the Nordic country to investigate the deaths. The first European safety report on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be published in late January.
“All of these patients had serious underlying diseases,” said Madsen. “We cannot say that people die from the vaccine. We can say that it may be a coincidence. It is difficult to prove that the vaccine is the direct cause ”.
What Bloomberg Intelligence says …
“The concept of limiting Covid-19 vaccination to people under 75 years of age is not supported by US data covering more than 14 million inoculated people, our analysis shows, despite Norway reporting a much higher mortality rate after using the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Norway’s excessive deaths suggest that they are in individuals with serious and uncontrolled illnesses. “
– Sam Fazeli, senior industry analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence
–Click here for the full report
Norway has given at least one dose to around 42,000 people, focusing on those considered to be most at risk if they contract the virus, including the elderly. Madsen says it is possible that the side effects of immunization may, in some cases, “lead patients to a more serious course of the underlying disease. We cannot rule this out. ”He says Norway has already vaccinated all patients in nursing homes,” more or less “, and the reported fatalities are” well under 1 in 1,000 “.
Madsen said he does not expect a different result with another vaccine, from Moderna Inc., which was introduced in Norway on Friday. Like the Pfizer-BioNTech injection, it uses messenger RNA technology that teaches the body’s cells how to fight infections.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency claims to have made it clear prior to the start of the vaccination program that “deaths are expected to occur in a time-related context with vaccination” for “older and sicker” people receiving the vaccine.
– With the help of Stephen Treloar and Naomi Kresge