The Norwegian government has resisted advice from its public health authority to drop the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine and appointed an expert committee to further examine risks associated with that shot and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, after a number of blood clot related deaths.
Norway’s health minister Bent Hoie said he was worried that permanently suspending use of the AstraZeneca jab would also have long-term implications for the rollout of the J&J vaccine, which the US drugmaker paused in Europe this week after similar side-effects were seen in America.
The expert group will investigate the risks associated with both vaccines and give its report by May 10. The AstraZeneca shot will remain suspended until then.
“The government believes that we don’t have a good enough basis for making a final conclusion. We must assess the consequences for the health of the entire population if we have to live with measures longer than other countries in Europe,” Hoie said on Thursday.
The Norwegian announcement came as Denmark’s Social Democrat government, under pressure from the centre-right opposition, said it would investigate allowing Danes to choose to have the AstraZeneca jab, a day after it became the first European country to drop the jab completely from its vaccination programme.
The Danish government has asked health authorities to look into the pros and cons of letting people choose, after opposition parties said the vaccine was less risky than birth control pills, health minister Magnus Heunicke told broadcaster TV 2.
Several other countries have previously suspended the AstraZeneca vaccine over the blood clot issue or restricted its use to certain age groups.
Norway’s Institute of Public Health (FHI) said that Norway’s death rate during the pandemic was so low — the second-lowest per capita in Europe — that it would be more dangerous to use the AstraZeneca jab than not use it at all.
Four women aged under 54 have died in Norway within days of taking the AstraZeneca jab with a rare combination of symptoms including blood clots, low levels of blood platelets, and bleeding. Researchers at Oslo University Hospital have concluded there was a link with the vaccine, which sparked a severe immune response in the women, but have not established why.
Camilla Stoltenberg, the director-general of FHI, described the recommendation to drop the vaccine as its toughest decision of the entire pandemic.
Geir Bukholm, head of infection control at FHI, added: “Since there are few who die from Covid-19 in Norway, the risk of dying from taking the AstraZeneca vaccine will be greater than the risk of dying from the disease, especially for younger people.”
The FHI estimated taking out both the AstraZeneca and J&J vaccines would delay Norway’s programme by up to seven weeks, meaning all adults would not be vaccinated until September.
Hoie said: “If we now say no to AstraZeneca, it could have consequences for the opportunity to assess the use of Johnson & Johnson. We would therefore risk not reaching the goal of vaccinating the entire Norwegian population by the summer.”