Beijing, Jan 15 (IANS) In a disturbing news coming ahead of India beginning its mass vaccination drive from Saturday, Chinese publication Global Times on Friday said that health experts in the country have called on Norway and other countries to suspend the use of Pfizer’s mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine, after at least 23 deaths were reported by the local news outlets post-vaccination.
As of Thursday, Norway has reported 23 deaths in connection with vaccination, the report said.
“So far, 13 of these have been assessed. Common side effects may have contributed to a severe course in frail elderly people,” the Norwegian Medicines Agency posted on its website.
“All the deaths have occurred in frail, elderly patients in nursing homes. All are over 80 years old and some of them over 90,” Norwegian media NRK reported.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency, however, admitted that the studies that form the basis for the temporary approval of the vaccine included very few people over the age of 85, and little is known about how any side effects will affect these age brackets.
But the agency said: “We assume that the side-effects will largely be the same in the elderly as in those over 65 years of age.”
Pfizer was yet to reach to the report.