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MORE TIME: Minister of Health Bent Høie, here in the corridors of the Ministry of Health and Care Services on Friday afternoon. Photo: Mattis Sandblad
While several other countries have resumed vaccination against AstraZeneca, it is still on hiatus in Norway. Health Minister Bent Høie believes this is a correct assessment.
– Norway, which is a relatively small country, had several of these very rare types of incidents in a short time, which made our professionals think it was okay to take a break. I believe that the evaluation carried out by the Norwegian Medicines Agency and FHI has been maintained afterwards, the development has shown that it was the right decision, says Health Minister Bent Høie to VG.
Norway suspended vaccination with AstraZeneca on Thursday last week, following a report of a death in Denmark. Then came the news that three healthcare workers had been admitted to Rikshospitalet with an unusual combination of blood clots, bleeding and a low number of platelets.
On Thursday, the Norwegian Medicines Agency stated that a total of five vaccinated people in Norway have been admitted with the rare combination.
One of those admitted to the hospital died on Sunday. A group of experts who have examined the course of the disease believe that a strong immune response has triggered the system such that a combination of blood clots and low platelets has been obtained, and that nothing but the vaccine can explain this immunity. answer.
Norway took the dissent
FHI believes it is too early to reach a conclusion on the use of the vaccine and will return with a recommendation in a week. At the same time, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) assessment is that the vaccine is safe and that vaccination can continue. They have included a warning about the course of the disease in the drug review.
The EMA would not include specific thrombotic cases in the list of possible side effects for AstraZeneca. This led representatives of the Norwegian Medicines Agency to disagree.
– This is about the extent to which a connection between serious incidents and vaccination is believed to have been documented, and the Norwegian professional community believes that there is an overwhelming likelihood that there is a connection. So they have a slightly stronger formulation, Høie says.
WHO also recommends continued use of the vaccine.
– Are you afraid of scaring?
– No. We have always thought that we should be as open as possible about this, because that is what creates the most security and trust.
– Do you fear a trust problem for the vaccination program?
– No, I really think the opposite, that people see that we do what we said we should do. We have said that we should be open to potential side effects and that rare side effects that go undetected during the trial are possible when vaccines are used by many. We have said that we monitor it, and if it is discovered, we will consider its consequences until the end.
If FHI chooses to resume vaccination with AstraZeneca, Høie says he will have no qualms about taking the vaccine himself.
– If our professional authorities recommend that vaccine, I will take it.
Do not think that they will be vaccinated less
Before vaccination was stopped in Norway, Høie says, the ministry was briefed in a meeting with FHI and the Norwegian Medicines Agency. But the ministry is not involved in deciding which vaccines to use in Norway or for whom.
– It is our national professional communities that decide. Then it is up to the person to decide if they want to get vaccinated.
– Do you think fewer people will be vaccinated now?
– It’s hard to tell, but I don’t think it has a very big effect on how many people are going to get the vaccine at the end, due to the way it is handled.
At the same time, the infection situation is serious and the mutated virus is spreading. New infection registries are being established, more young people are being admitted, and the capacity of several hospitals is under pressure.
– I completely agree that we would have liked to have received more doses of vaccine earlier, as was the original plan. It is first of all from AstraZeneca that we have experienced delivery failures. So paradoxically it has been less important to progress that they failed deliveries, precisely because we have put this vaccine on hiatus, Høie says about it.
When vaccination began in Norway, FHI was preparing for mass vaccination with AstraZeneca in February. But the company did not comply. On Friday, a total of 758,514 doses of vaccine were established in Norway.
– Are there many who had thought that now we would be in a different situation?
– Yeah, I had that too. But as I’ve always said when I talk about this, there can be good news and bad news about vaccines. Every time we’ve talked about it, we’ve made that reservation and it turns out it was the right thing to do. There are challenges that arise along the way, and we must count them.
– He had caused a lot of riots
Precisely the fact that thousands die every day from the coronavirus, and that no conclusion has been reached about the possible side effects of AstraZeneca, was what the EMA pointed out when they made their recommendation this Thursday.
Høie says he understands well that some people think vaccination should continue in Norway, as has been done in some European countries.
– The consequences of stopping are also negative. But I think in the Norwegian context, it would have caused a lot of riots and conflicts around vaccination, which could have broken the trust that we completely depend on to be successful with this in the end. We depend on a large enough proportion of the population being vaccinated, he says.
It says that this should be assessed based on the situation in the individual country.
– For Norway, this will not be decisive for our ability to be successful with vaccination if AstraZeneca cannot be used. But internationally, it is of great importance, it is a vaccine that is easier to use in many countries that do not have the same health system as us. So I really hope it can be used.
The NIPH still bases its scenarios on the fact that all Norwegian adults over the age of 18 should have been offered the first dose of vaccine by the end of July.
– Our ambition remains to offer the entire adult population the opportunity to be vaccinated during the summer, but it depends on the agreements we have now reached, says Høie.
He notes that Pfizer has said they will be able to administer 120,000 more doses in the second quarter.
– Fortunately, we now feel quite safe with Pfizer deliveries. They have complied with what they have said and that gives confidence; this also applies to Moderna. Communication has improved and we are working hard to increase deliveries.
These four vaccines are approved in Norway now. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine came in last and is scheduled to deliver doses starting in mid-April. Click on vaccines to read more about them:
