By John Miller
ZURICH (Reuters). The Swiss medicine regulator said on Wednesday it saw no link between the death of a 91-year-old person in the canton of Lucerne and the COVID-19 vaccine, adding that the deceased had suffered from multiple diseases before taking the chance. got.
“Explanations by cantonal health authorities and swissmedics determined that, due to the medical history and course of the disease, a link between death and the COVID-19 vaccine was highly unlikely,” the regulator said in a statement.
Swissmedic said previous illnesses are listed on the death certificate as the person’s “natural cause of death”.
Lucerne was the first vaccinations in Switzerland last week, with a shot from Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech given mainly to the elderly.
Switzerland has so far received 107,000 Pfizer / BioNTech doses and expects to receive 250,000 a month from next year.
Neither Lucerne nor swissmedic released the time that elapsed between the person who received the shot and when the death occurred. The person’s gender was not given.
Pfizer and BioNTech’s vaccine is the only vaccine approved so far in Switzerland. It has been approved on an emergency basis in the United States and Britain and has conditional marketing approval in the European Union to tens of thousands of people.
Pfizer said the thoughts were with the deceased’s family.
“It is important to note that serious adverse events, including non-vaccine-related deaths, will unfortunately occur at a similar rate as in the general population of the elderly and persons at risk currently prioritized before vaccination. “, the American company said.
Millions of doses of the vaccine have been administered. Several people suffered allergic reactions after shots, although the incidents were resolved quickly.
(Edited by Oliver Hirt; Written by John Miller; Edited by Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi and Jan Harvey)