In an alarming development, 23 elderly people are dead after receiving the Pfizer vaccine shot in Norway.
The worrying story comes straight from Norway where these elderly people showed side effects to the vaccine and died within a short time of receiving their first Covid-19 jab. A direct correlation is yet to be established between the deaths of these elderly people and the Pfizer vaccine. However, health experts from Norwegian Medicines Agency have said that 13 out of the 23 people who died showed common side effects such as nausea, fever, diarrhea.
Meanwhile, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health has issued a public warning to vaccination centers against vaccinating people above the age of 80 years. The institute has said that elderly people with ages above 80 may not be benefitted much from the vaccination. Speaking to Bloomberg, the Norwegian regulator also said, “For those with the most severe frailty, even relatively mild vaccine side effects can have serious consequences.”
Pfizer and BioNTech are working together with the Norwegian authorities in the probe of the deaths. Pfizer claimed that the regulator discovered “the number of incidents so far is not alarming and in line with expectations”. According to reports, Norway has so far administered one dose of either Pfizer or Moderna Covid-19 vaccines to over 33,000 people by December.
So far the death of 23 people due to the vaccine is one of the only few incidents where people reacted adversely to the vaccine. In the US, 1.9 million people were vaccinated by the doses of Pfizer and BioNtech developed vaccines. Of these 1.9 million people, a total of 21 cases of allergic reactions were reported from December 14-23. According to CDCP(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), that is 11.1 cases per million doses.
In Norway, one dose of Pfizer or BioNTech vaccine has been administered to about 33,000 people. The Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine was approved last year for emergency used and has been used most broadly.
