Norway on Saturday expressed concern about the safety of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine on elderly people with serious underlying medical co...
Norway on Saturday expressed concern about the safety of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine on elderly people with serious underlying medical conditions, after at least 29 of them died within days of receiving the shot, Bloomberg reported.
The vaccine produced by Pfizer and BioNTech was the only one available in Norway until Friday, and “all deaths are thus linked to this vaccine,” the Norwegian Medicines Agency said in a written response to Bloomberg.
“There are 13 deaths that have been assessed, and we are aware of another 16 deaths that are currently being assessed,” the agency added. All the reported deaths relate to “elderly people with serious basic disorders”.
Norway said that most of the people experienced the expected side effects of the vaccine, such as nausea and vomiting, fever, local reactions at the injection site, “and worsening of their underlying condition”.
On Friday, Norwegian Medicines Agency Chief Physician Sigurd Hortemo had said that common reactions to the vaccine, including fever and nausea, “may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some frail patients”.
The findings prompted the Scandinavian country to suggest that the Pfizer vaccine may be too risky for elderly vulnerable patients. “For those with the most severe frailty, even relatively mild vaccine side effects can have serious consequences,”...
