FRANKFURT (Reuters) – Norway has changed its policy on the use of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to exclude consideration of the deadly sick, following reports of deaths in many debilitated recipients after the vaccination was given , BioNTech said Monday.
“Norwegian health authorities have now changed (their) recommendation regarding the vaccination of terminally ill patients (clinical weakness scale 8 or higher),” BioNTech.
The Clinical Frailty Scale, a commonly used classification system in aged care, defines grade 8 patients as the end of their lives and is usually unable to recover ‘even from a minor illness’.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency said in a statement on Friday and updated on Monday that ‘general adverse reactions may have contributed to a serious course in elderly people with disabilities’.
On 14 January, 23 reports of suspected deaths were submitted to the Norwegian Health Register.
“An evaluation should be done for each patient to see if the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of eventual side effects,” the Norwegian agency said.
In Norway, an average of 400 people die each week in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, the medicine agency said.
German Health Minister Jens Spahn said at a news conference on Monday that the country’s vaccine regulator sees no need to review guidelines and that it is in contact with their Norwegian counterparts.
Vaccine safety is attracting public attention worldwide after drugmakers developed the shooting emergency to curb a pandemic that has killed more than 2 million people.
US and European vaccine developers have promised to uphold the scientific standards against which they will be vaccinated in the fight against the virus.
Stephen Evans, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, said there was no evidence so far of a causal link between the death of vulnerable patients in Norway and vaccination.
“We do not know yet, but it would appear that the observed numbers of deaths are not particularly higher than the expected numbers, but it should be constantly investigated 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