Norway will drop AstraZeneca s COVID vaccine from its immunisation programme due to concerns over rare side effects, and offer Johnson & Johnson s jab only to volunteers while it remains suspended, the government announced on Wednesday.
Prime Minister Erna Solberg told a press conference the decision had been taken in view of the rare but serious side effects associated with both jabs, which both use the same adenovirus technology.
The European Medicines Agency and the World Health Organization both recommend continued use of the vaccines, arguing that the benefits far outweigh the associated risks.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was never deployed in Norway, but Solberg said the country would hold on to the doses it had already received.
Health
Norway’s Institute of Public Health Recommends Government Ban J&J, AstraZeneca Vaccines Due To Side Effects
May 11th 2021, 4:40 am We do not recommend that the vaccines be used in the national vaccination program due to the serious side effects that have been seen”
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The Norwegian Institute of Public Health advised the country’s government to avoid the use of Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca Covid vaccines, citing serious side effects such as blood clots that have taken the lives of multiple Norwegians.
“We do not recommend that the vaccines be used in the national vaccination program due to the serious side effects that have been seen,” NIPH investigation committee chair Lars Vorland said during a press conference on Monday.
Last Updated: Tuesday, May 11, 2021 15:08
The western Canadian prairie province of Alberta is reported to have stopped administering first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine against COVID-1. except in certain special cases. This includes Covishield which is the name of the same product produced in India.
The report was carried today in the influential Globe and Mail newspaper.
Other provinces have made no decision regarding the vaccine which is known in very rare cases to cause blood clots. There have been a few cases reported of blood clots from the vaccine in Canada and three people have died here from clots believed to be associated with the vaccine; one in New Brunswick, one in Quebec, and one in Alberta.
FDA Clears Pfizer Shot for Teens; U.S. Cases Slow: Virus Update
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the use of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for children aged 12 to 15. The number of new cases in U.S. rose last week at the slowest pace since the pandemic began, as more Americans are vaccinated and the nation recovers from a winter spike fueled by holiday travel.
India’s capital of New Delhi extended its lockdown for another week as it battled a wave of infections and warned about a potentially deadly fungal infection in Covid-19 patients. Meanwhile, the World Health Organization sees the highly contagious variant spreading in India as a global concern.