Covid-19 vaccine jab leaves 23 dead in Norway, 10 in Germany
21 Jan 2021
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At least 23 elderly people have died in Norway shortly after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, while German specialists are probing the death of 10 people within four days of getting inoculated against the novel coronavirus disease.
Media reports said several others who received the vaccine jab in Norway have fallen ill, although there is no confirmation of any direct link between the vaccine jab and the reported ailments.
A Bloomberg report said that 13 of the 23 people who died have shown common symptoms of mRNA vaccines such as diarrhoea, nausea and fever, adding that Pfizer and BioNTech are working with the Norwegian authorities to investigate the deaths.
German specialists are probing the death of 10 people within four days of getting inoculated against the novel coronavirus disease, in signs that the deceased, all aged between 79 to 93 years, would have been better off without the vaccine jab.
The deceased were all aged between 79 and 93, all with antecedent diseases. But the time between vaccination and death was too short - ranging from several hours to four days – to arrive at a conclusion that the vaccine may not have been the cause of death.
In both cases – in Norway as well as in Germany - the dead are all elderly people and most of them were suffering some ailments.
Brigitte Keller-Stanislawski, the head of the institute's department of the safety of medicinal products and medical devices on Thursday said specialists from Germany's Paul Ehrlich Institute were looking into the deaths.
Norwegian officials said they have left the decision on who gets the Covid-19 vaccine to doctors, considering that all the deaths occurred among patients in nursing homes and all were over the age of 80.
Germany, which launched the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in late December, has so far administered the vaccine to over 842,000 people. Those over 80 were the first ones to get vaccinated followed by the residents and staff at nursing homes as well as medical personnel.
Germany's Paul Ehrlich Institute also reported six anaphylaxis (severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction) cases. So far, including 51 severe ones, there have been 325 cases of side-effects allegedly related to the vaccine. Those results are within expectations and correspond to the US vaccination statistics, Keller-Stanislawski stated.
Meanwhile, reports citing information for UK recipients on Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine states that the vaccine "has been given authorisation for temporary supply by the UK Department of Health and Social Care and the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency". It clarifies that the vaccine "does not have a marketing authorisation, but this temporary authorisation grants permission for the medicine to be used for active immunisation to prevent Covid-19 disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 virus in individuals aged 16 years of age and over".
It also cautions that the vaccine may not fully protect all those who receive it and no data are currently available (about the effect of vaccine) in individuals with a weakened immune system or who are taking chronic treatment that suppresses or prevents immune responses. The information also lists out over a dozen common side effects.
