FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Norway has changed its policy on the use of COFID-19 Pfizer and BioNTech to consider excluding terminally ill people following reports of deaths in very frail patients after inoculation, BioNTech said on Monday.
“The Norwegian health authorities have now changed (their recommendations) regarding the vaccination of terminally ill patients (Clinical Fragility Scale 8 or higher)”, BioNTech.
The clinical fragility scale, a classification system widely used in the care of the elderly, defines patients in grade 8 as nearing the end of life and usually unable to “recover even after a minor illness”.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency said in a statement posted on Friday and updated on Monday that “frequent side effects could have contributed to a severe development in the elderly who are fragile”.
As of Jan. 14, 23 reports of suspected deaths have been filed with the Norwegian health registry, he said.
“An assessment should be made for each patient if the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of possible side effects,” the Norwegian agency said.
In Norway, an average of 400 people die every week in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, the drug agency said.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said in a news briefing on Monday that the country’s vaccine regulators do not see the need to revise the guidelines and are in contact with their Norwegian counterparts.
Vaccine safety is attracting global attention after drug manufacturers have developed dizzying speeds to reduce a pandemic that has killed more than 2 million people.
Vaccine developers in the US and Europe are committed to meeting the scientific standards against which immunizations will be held in the race to contain the virus.
Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said so far there was no evidence of a causal link between the deaths of vulnerable patients in Norway and vaccination.
“We don’t know yet, but it would seem that the number of deaths observed is not specifically above the expected number, but this will have to be examined continuously in all countries where it can be done,” he said.
Reporting by Ludwig Burger; Additional reporting by Andreas Rinke in Berlin; Edited by Alex Richardson