Prognosis
Norway Moves to Calm Vaccine Anxiety After Elderly Deaths
- No evidence of direct link to Pfizer-BioNTech shot: officials
- Norway has prioritized vaccination of elderly in nursing homes
Until Friday, Norway had only used the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Photographer: Jean-Francois Monier/AFP/Getty Images
This article is for subscribers only.
Health authorities in Norway sought to allay safety concerns raised by the death of some elderly patients after they were vaccinated against Covid-19, saying there’s no evidence of a direct link.
The initial reports from Norway raised alarm as the world looks for early signs of potential side effects from the vaccines. Although doctors say it’s possible that vaccine side-effects could aggravate underlying illnesses, they were expecting nursing-home residents to die shortly after being vaccinated because deaths are more common among the frailest and sickest elderly patients.