Coronavirus in Norway: 23 elderly people have died after …

The Institute of Public Health Norway warned that coronavirus vaccines can be risky for those over 80 and terminally ill patients. The warning came after it was confirmed that 23 people have died after receiving the Pfizer – BioNtech vaccine. All of the deaths were in nursing homes and all were over 80 years old.

“The fever and nausea could have killed some weak patients. For the most fragile people, even the relatively mild side effects of the vaccine can have serious consequences. ” said Sigurd Hortemo, chief medical officer of the Norwegian Medicines Agency.

For his part, the medical director of the same organization, Steinar Madsen, assured: “We are not alarmed by this. It is quite clear that these vaccines present very little risk, with one small exception for the weakest patients.“.

According to the report presented by the Norwegian agency, “the large studies of the Pfizer-BioNTec vaccine did not include patients with unstable or acute illnesses and included few patients over the age of 85”. And they clarified: “In Norway we are currently vaccinating the elderly and the elderly against serious underlying diseases, so deaths should occur as vaccination approaches.”

More than 30,000 people received the first dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine in the Scandinavian country, who started the vaccination operation in December. So far, 29 people have experienced side effects, 23 of them fatalities. Of these deaths, 13 were evaluated and it was concluded that side effects associated with the vaccine may have contributed to serious reactions in weak patients and the elderly.

From Pfizer and BioNTech, they ensured they were already working with the Norwegian regulator to investigate the deaths. “The agency found that the number of incidents to date is not alarming and is in line with expectations “Pfizer said in a statement.

Other side effects

Last week, in the United States, authorities have reported 21 cases of severe allergic reactions after administration of approximately 1.9 million initial doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer-BioNTech SE. That’s an incidence of 11.1 cases per million doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

As, in Israel, around 13 people had mild facial palsy as a side effect after receiving the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, reported the Israeli Ministry of Health and estimated that the number of cases could be higher.