NORWAY PROBING DEATHS OF 23 ELDERLY PATIENTS WHO WERE IMMUNIZED

Doctors in Norway are investigating the deaths of 23 elderly patients who had received the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, looking into the possibility that adverse reactions to the shot "may have contributed to a fatal outcome in some frail patients."

The vaccine's side-effects are rare and usually mild. But they could include fever and nausea, which could be dangerous to very ill and frail patients, Ivana Kottasova, Sarah Dean and Amanda Sealy reported for CNN on January 19, 2021.

Following the deaths, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health updated its COVID-19 vaccination guide with more detailed advice on inoculating elderly people who are frail or terminally ill.

The new guidance says doctors should evaluate each individual patient to determine whether the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks of any potential side effects.

As of last Thursday, 42,000 people in Norway had received their first dose of the vaccine. As is the case in many other countries, the elderly and those in nursing homes with underlying health conditions are first in line to be vaccinated, because they face much higher risk of becoming seriously ill from COVID-19.

"Therefore it is expected that deaths close to the time [of the] vaccination may occur. In Norway, an average of 400 people die each week in nursing homes and long-term care facilities," the Norwegian Medicines Agency (NOMA) said in a statement.

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