Norway reports death related to Covid vaccination

Norway has reported 23 deaths related to vaccination against the novel coronavirus disease. Apart from the 23 deaths, several others have reported being fallen ill soon after the vaccination, triggering Norway to launch a probe into the deaths.

Bloomberg reported that Norway doctors have started investigating the deaths of 23 people who died shortly after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against coronavirus. Doctors said that people aged over 80 years, who have a weak body, are showing adverse reactions to the vaccine.

More than 25,000 people have been vaccinated in the Scandinavian country since the drive began on December 27, 2020.

A direct connection between the Pfizer vaccine and these deaths is yet to be established, but experts observed that 13 of the 23 people who have died have shown common symptoms of mRNA vaccines such as diarrhea, nausea and fever.

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has cautioned against vaccinating elderly people above 80years of age saying those with a short life span may not benefit much from the jab.

Pfizer and BioNTech are working with the Norwegian authorities to investigate the deaths in Norway. According to Pfizer, the regulator discovered “the number of incidents so far is not alarming and in line with expectations”.

Experts cautioned that doctors need to be more careful in vaccinating people in the wake of the deaths of 23 elderly people.

Apart from Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine, the vaccine candidate by Moderna also uses mRNA platform. These are “coated molecules of mRNA, similar to DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), that carry the instructions for making a viral protein.

Meanwhile, many news reports said that Pfizer has now gone to temporarily reduce its vaccine supply in Europe following the concerns raised with the deaths in Norway.

The reduction in deliveries is due to Pfizer limiting output so that it can upgrade production capacity to 2 billion vaccine doses per year from 1.3 billion currently, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said.