As of January 14, 2021, 23 reports of deaths following COVID-19 vaccination had been reported to the Norwegian adverse reaction register. The Norwegian Medicines Agency have linked 13 of these deaths to “common” vaccine side effects – these were elderly nursing home patients, the very risk group we are trying to help. [1, 2]
13 of these deaths are in nursing home patients and “the reports may indicate that common side effects from mRNA vaccines, such as fever and nausea, may have led to deaths in some frail patients,” says Sigurd Hortemo, chief medical officer at the Norwegian Medicines Agency (NMA).
The NMA noted that the vaccine clinical trials “on which the temporary approval of the vaccine is based included very few people over the age of 85. We therefore know little about how any side effects will affect the very elderly.”
A week earlier, on January 7, 2021, 2 nursing home residents died a few days after receiving their Pfizer vaccine. Then two days after this report the post-vaccination death count rises to 29, but the age group affected is lowered to 75 years.
The UK watchdog says vaccine reactions are “normal”, following “33 elderly people living in nursing homes [who] died shortly after being immunized.”