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Take a hastily developed vaccine? Never again, says Meissa Chebbi, who, like hundreds of other young Swedes, suffered from debilitating narcolepsy after a mass vaccination campaign against the 2009-2010 swine flu pandemic.
The experiment has shaken the confidence of Swedes in any future vaccine against the novel coronavirus, heightening fears of unknown long-term side effects.
“I will never recommend this,” Chebbi, 21, told AFP, when asked about the possibility of taking a rapidly developed vaccine. “Unless you really have to take it because of life-threatening circumstances.”
The Swedish case highlights the complex task governments face in deploying coronavirus vaccines, especially at a time when rabid disinformation on social media is fueling skepticism in state institutions and even about the disease itself. .
Vaccine-related trauma is particularly noticeable in Sweden, which normally enjoys over 90% participation in its voluntary childhood immunization program.
But a recent survey by polling institute Novus suggested that 26% of Swedes do not plan to take any of the Covid-19 vaccines in development and 28% are undecided.
Forty-six percent said they would get hit.
Of those opposed, 87% said it was due to fears about as yet unknown side effects.
Health authorities in the Scandinavian country in 2009 urged the public to take the Pandemrix swine flu vaccine on a voluntary basis, manufactured by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline.
Over 60% answered the call – the highest level in the world.
But Chebbi and hundreds of others, mostly children and young adults under the age of 30, were later diagnosed with narcolepsy as a side effect of the vaccine.
A link was finally established with an adjuvant, or booster, of the vaccine Pandemrix intended to reinforce the immune response.
Narcolepsy is a chronic disorder of the nervous system that causes excessive and often uncontrollable sleepiness.
“I have sleep attacks all the time in all kinds of situations and at the inappropriate times… in my food, in job interviews, in conferences, seminars, in college. I fall asleep at my workplace, I fall asleep on buses and everywhere, ”Chebbi says.
“It destroyed my life.”
Swedish Pharmaceutical Insurance has so far approved 440 of the 702 Pandemrix-related narcolepsy claims, paying a total of 100 million kronor (9.8 million euros, $ 11.6 million) in compensation.
– ‘If only we had known’ –
Anders Tegnell, a Swedish state epidemiologist and face of the country’s controversial ‘softer’ response to the novel coronavirus, was part of a group of Health Council experts who called for mass vaccination in 2009-2010.
“Of course, the decision would have been completely different if we had known about the side effects. But they were completely unknown, they were a surprise to everyone,” Tegnell told AFP in an interview.
“There has been an international consensus for many years that the best thing to do during a pandemic is to vaccinate, and it really is the only long-term solution we have.”
Babis Stefanides, a 36-year-old Stockholm resident, said he was too suspicious to take a hit with Covid.
“I have no intention of getting the vaccine,” he told AFP. “There are too many questions.”
Tegnell said he understood the concerns of the Swedes.
“Of course, when you have a new vaccine that we don’t know much about yet – against a disease that we don’t know much about – everyone … wants more information before they make a decision on it. this, ”he said.
“We will educate about these vaccines when we know a little more about them.”
Tegnell ruled out making any future vaccine mandatory.
According to the director of the Swedish Public Health Agency, Johan Carlson, 60 to 70 percent of the population should be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus.
“Everyone has to think about it and decide what to do. Usually in Sweden most people end up getting the vaccine,” Carlson told Swedish television on Sunday.
In order to allay fears, Sweden plans to create a registry to quickly detect side effects of a future Covid vaccine.
– Solidarity in question –
Hannah Laine, a 37-year-old social worker in Stockholm, said she, her husband and their three children would certainly receive the vaccine – despite her fears.
“If it’s approved for the market and we notice the public health agency and society saying we should take the vaccine, we will,” she told AFP.
“We have to take our moral responsibility for the elderly and the sick. We will take it, maybe not for ourselves but for society.”
This kind of thinking worries Elisabeth Widell, president of the Narcolepsy Association.
She says health officials were not wrong to call for a mass vaccination in 2009, but they have over-appealed to Swedes’ sense of solidarity and she hopes they won’t do it again.
“People who choose not to be vaccinated should not be blamed and ashamed. Because it’s not mandatory, which means it’s a free choice.
She urged the Swedes to “do your own risk-benefit analysis”.
Chebbi, suffering from narcolepsy, remains determined.
“I’m not going to be taking the vaccine (Covid) for about five years, when we know what the risks are.”
po-tl / pma
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