Norway had raised concern over Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine jabs for the elderly.
Norway had raised concern about the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine‘s safety on elderly people with serious underlying health conditions after raising an estimated number of people who died after receiving the said vaccine to 29.
In a report on Bloomberg, the most recent figure added six deaths to the overall number of known fatalities in Norway and also lowered the age group from 80 to 75.
While it was unclear exactly when the fatalities occurred, Norway had given at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose to about 42,000 people and focused on those considered most at risk if they had contracted the coronavirus disease – including the elderly.
Until Friday, the COVID-19 vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech SE was the only one available in Norway, and the Norwegian Medicines Agency on Saturday said in a written response to Bloomberg that all fatalities were thus linked to the said vaccine.
“There are 13 deaths that have been assessed, and we are aware of another 16 deaths that are currently being assessed,” the Norwegian Medicines Agency said, adding that all the reported fatalities were related to “elderly people with serious basic disorders”.
In addition, the agency said that most people had experienced the expected side effects of the said vaccine.
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Bloomberg also reported that official reports of allergic reactions had been rare as governments rushed to roll out COVID-19 vaccines to try to contain the global coronavirus pandemic.
Authorities in the United States reported 21 cases of severe allergic reactions from December 14 to December 23 after administration of about 1.9 million initial Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses.
Moreover, the first Europe-wide safety report on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to a report, was due to be published at the end of January 2021.
Following the said incident in Norway, Dr. Edsel Salvaña — a member of the technical advisory group that advised the Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) — allayed concerns about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines.
Dr. Salvaña told ANC that it’s possible that it may have contributed to their demise, but the Norwegian authorities weren’t categorically stating that it was the vaccine that caused the death of senior citizens in Norway.
According to Dr. Salvaña, it may have contributed because the common side effects of vaccines may actually stress out those elderly people who have a lot of other underlying health condition.
Salvaña, who was also the director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology at the University of the Philippines – National Institutes of Health (UP-NIH), stressed that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccine outweighed the risks of COVID-19 vaccine.
Also, Salvaña noted that it may be difficult to prove causation on fatalities linked to the COVID-19 vaccines.
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