Norway may refine vaccination strategy after elderly deaths, says prime minister

Photographer: Ole Berg-Rusten / AFP / Getty Images

Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg says her country can fine-tune the vaccination of its oldest and sickest citizens as it tries to make sense of a recent wave of deaths.

After overcoming the pandemic better than most, Norway suddenly made headlines this month after revealing that more than 30 people, all over the age of 70 and all ill, died shortly after being vaccinated against Covid-19. Solberg says the intense global interest in the news was “exaggerated,” as he tries to keep development from postponing people to inoculation.

“We don’t believe there is any problem with vaccine safety,” Solberg said in an interview with Bloomberg Live that aired Tuesday. “But we may not give them to the most vulnerable of the elderly, because that can speed up a process in which they would be what we would say at the end of life anyway,” so “it’s probably not what we’ll continue to do.”

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health, which has identified people over 65 as a priority group in vaccine deployment, has urged doctors to inoculate the elderly and sick on a case-by-case basis.

“For very frail patients and terminally ill patients, a careful balance of benefit against the disadvantage of vaccination is recommended,” said on January 11, before Norway released data on deaths after inoculation.

Unnecessary concern

The Norwegian Medicines Agency said its reports of adverse reactions caused unnecessary concern around the world and that it will now only publish data on deaths that have been autopsied. The agency says its information on the side effects of Covid-19 vaccines will be included in international studies.

Other countries, including Germany, have also reported deaths in recently vaccinated people. Finland reported three of those victims on Tuesday, but none of the countries identified causal links.

The Norwegian Medicines Agency says so far there is no evidence to indicate that the reported fatalities were directly related to the vaccine. “However, it cannot be ruled out that common side effects of vaccines, such as fever and nausea, may have contributed to a serious course of underlying disease in frail patients,” the agency said in a written response to the questions.

Norway now works with Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, the first producers to provide you with vaccines, to examine your data in more detail. The country’s drug agency has told Pfizer it sees no cause for alarm. The first European-level safety report on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is due in late January.

Meanwhile, the Norwegian government has stressed its confidence in the vaccine. “We’re trying to work really hard to focus on the fact that this is not a problem,” Solberg said. “It’s who we vaccinated, not the vaccine that created that data.”

The Norwegian drug agency reported 292 alleged “adverse reactions” of the 71,971 people vaccinated since January 21; of these, 104 had been reviewed by health authorities, with 30 deaths reported. The country had inoculated 1.4% of its population as of Friday, according to Bloomberg’s Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker. This compares with 3.4% in neighboring Denmark, which is among the most advanced in Europe with its vaccination program.

Norway plans to administer the second dose of vaccine without delay, Solberg said. This contrasts with the focus in the UK, where he has Health Secretary Matt Hancock said there is great confidence that the first dose provides “decent effectiveness” against the virus.

Solberg spoke to Bloomberg Live in front of Norway moved to close the Oslo area in an effort to combat the spread of more contagious coronavirus mutations, deploying its strictest measures to date. The prime minister said she hopes Norway will finish vaccinating its most vulnerable citizens in March.

– With the assistance of Lars Erik Taraldsen and Naomi Kresge