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The government made no promises when the COVID-19 vaccines arrive, but said during a vaccination seminar on Tuesday that the first doses could be ready for winter.
– If all goes well, meaning that the most optimistic assessments of what is possible happen in the future, then we will be able to have the vaccine available in Norway in the winter of 2021, says the Minister of Health and Care Services Bent Høie ( H).
At the same time, it is uncertain which of the candidate vaccines will end up being approved. The candidate vaccines have different characteristics, so it is unclear which groups in society will be first in line when the vaccines are ready.
Children are not the first in line
According to Høie, children will not be among the first to receive the coronary vaccine, if at all.
– It is conceivable that children are not vaccinated at all, he says.
The Health Minister points out that the virus causes mild symptoms of illness in children and that when it comes to a vaccine, it can always be a side effect.
– This has to be seen to each other, and therefore children are not likely to be vaccinated until the vaccination career has possibly well advanced, says Høie.
The Executive Director of the Research Council, John Arne Røttingen, says it is natural in this situation not to prioritize children.
John Arne Røttingen says that before one can start implementing vaccines, there must be research that they work and are safe and the European Medicines Agency must approve the vaccine.
Photo: Jonas Bendiksen / Research Council of Norway
– We use vaccines mainly to prevent diseases and when serious disease occurs in older age groups and among those with other diseases, it is natural not to prioritize children, he says.
Røttingen says that many other infectious diseases present special challenges in children, which is why we have a comprehensive childhood vaccination program in Norway.
High confidence in vaccines in Norway
Regarding side effects, the director says that all vaccines have some side effects, from very mild, which are very common, to quite rare side effects.
– The important thing is to know the scope of it and make an exhaustive assessment of whether it is safe. It will be done for these vaccines before they are approved and not least in the subsequent follow-up, says Røttingen.
He explains that in Norway we have great confidence in vaccines and vaccination programs and that only ten percent say no to vaccinate.
– Currently, we do not have exact knowledge about how these vaccines will work and what the profile is like, so it is natural that people wait to decide until we have knowledge that we can put on the table, says Røttingen.
Priority list not ready
Geir Bukholm, director of infection control at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, says that vaccines can have different effects.
According to Geir Bukholm, director of infection control at FHI, it is not yet clear in what order the vaccine will be given to different people.
Photo: Stian Lysberg Solum
– There may be vaccines that work primarily to protect infected people against serious diseases and reduce the risk of death. Then there will be some vaccines that will also likely have the effect of preventing the spread of the virus in society, he says.
It’s also unclear who will get the vaccine first, explained the director of infection control, who will draw up a priority list.
– A little depending on which vaccines get approved first and what kind of properties they want, then it will create a prioritization order.
