Covid-19 vaccine deaths, allergic reactions: How many died in Norway?

Photographer: Nathan Laine / Bloomberg

Like all new medicines, vaccines that have been approved to protect against Covid-19 come with some safety issues and side effects. Many people who received the first two western shots deployed, one of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and another from Moderna Inc., presented with fever, headache and pain at the injection site. These side effects usually go away quickly. More worryingly, Norway has reported deaths among elderly people with serious health conditions that were the basis for the administration of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine – possibly related to those side effects. Several other recipients of the various blows had a severe but treatable allergic reaction called anaphylaxis.

1. What is known about deaths?

Twenty-nine were reported in mid-January among about 40,000 people who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in Norway, where authorities gave priority to immunizing residents in nursing homes. Those who died were all in the “75+ years” category (exact ages were not given for privacy reasons) and included patients with terminal illnesses anticipated to have only weeks or months to live. All deaths that occur within a few days of vaccination are carefully assessed. Those close to the time of vaccination are not necessarily because of the shooting: an average of 400 people die every week in nursing homes and long-term care institutions, according to the Norwegian Medicines Agency. Sigurd Hortemo, the agency’s chief physician, said he could not rule out that common side effects of the vaccine, such as fever and nausea, could be life-threatening for patients with serious health problems.

2. Were there deaths elsewhere?

In Germany, where more than 800,000 people received the first of two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Paul Ehrlich Institute investigated at least seven cases of elderly people who died shortly after vaccination. In his report, he said the deaths were probably due to patients Basic diseases, including carcinomas, kidney failure and Alzheimer’s, not inoculation.

3. What reactions did these fatal cases develop?

Deaths in Norway have been associated with fever, nausea and diarrhea – common, short-lived effects that some people may experience after almost any vaccination, according to information from the Australian Therapeutic Administration. (Work with the European Medicines Agency, which includes Norway, before deciding whether to approve the medicine in Australia.) Reactions are not expected to be of major importance to the vast majority of people. Millions of doses of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been administered in USA, UK and other countries with No deaths have been reported from the vaccine, Abrar Chughtai, a lecturer at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, told the Australian Science Media Center.

4. What is known about the risks of the vaccine in the elderly and frail?

Not too big. Frequent side effects of non-hazardous vaccines in fitter, younger patients may be common. aggravates the underlying disease in the elderly, Steinar Madsen, the medical director of the Norwegian agency, told the BMJ medical journal. Only a limited number of people over the age of 85 have participated in large clinical trials of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the agency said. The average study participant for the two approved Western vaccines was in the early 1950s.

5. What is done in response to deaths?

The Norwegian Institute of Public Health has updated its Covid-19 vaccination guide with more detailed advice on vaccinating elderly people who are vulnerable. “We are now asking doctors to continue vaccination, but to carry out an additional assessment of very sick people whose basic condition could be aggravated by it,” Madsen said. The evaluation includes discussing the risks and benefits of vaccination with patients and their families to decide whether or not immunization is prudent. Separately, the northern neighbor of Finland has recommended against systematic vaccinations of terminally ill patients whose active treatment (in other words, those who are palliated) has been stopped. The reason is that common side effects, such as temporary fever, can weaken their condition.

6. What other serious reactions were there?

The body fights against foreign invaders through a variety of mechanisms that include the manufacture of protective proteins called antibodies, the release of toxins that kill microbes, and the organization of guard cells to fight infection. As in any conflict, sometimes the effort to repel an infection can be harmful in itself. In rare cases, it can cause fugitive inflammation and swelling of the tissues in a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. As much as 5% of the US population had such a reaction to various substances. It can be fatal if, for example, a person’s airways become swollen, even though there are deaths rar. Allergies to Insect bites and food can cause it, although drug reactions are the most common cause of anaphylaxis deaths in the US and the UK

7. Where did the Covid-19 vaccines start the cases?

According to a January 6 the report of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 21 cases of anaphylaxis associated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been confirmed in the country since December 23. Of these, 17 had a history of documented allergies and seven had a history of anaphylaxis. A December 19th the CDC presentation referred to two cases in the UK associated with the same vaccine, and later in the month in Israel, a man suffered anaphylactic shock an hour after receiving it, according to the Jerusalem Post. He said he had previous reactions to penicillin, the newspaper said. CDC officials say they have seen reactions to the recipients of the Moderna shooting and are compiling data about them.

8. Has anaphylaxis been linked to vaccines?