news
Chief Medical Officer Professor Paul Kelly . Picture : NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage
Pushing on
CMO says Norway deaths won ’ t derail Pfizer vaccine approval .
By Dallas Bastian and Conor Burke
Australia ’ s chief medical officer has
added some context to reports of about 30 deaths among elderly people in Norway who were given the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine .
At a press conference Professor Paul Kelly said in a normal week in Norway 400 people die in aged care facilities .
“ And so that has to be put into the context of what has happened after people have received vaccines ,” Kelly said .
He added that the Therapeutic Goods Administration ( TGA ) was still in contact with its counterpart in Norway about the deaths . “ We know that Norway is looking into those issues very directly and very specifically for each of those cases .”
After news broke about the 30 deaths in over 40,000 elderly individuals who were given the Pfizer jab , the Norwegian Medicines Agency ’ s medical director Steinar Madsen told a local broadcaster that the authorities were “ not alarmed ” by the news .
“ Doctors must now carefully consider who should be vaccinated ,” he said .
“ Those who are very frail and at the very end of life can be vaccinated after an individual assessment .”
Responding to a question from a journalist , Kelly said while he doesn ’ t have detailed information about all of the deaths , “ in general terms they were very old , they were frail , some of them were basically terminally ill ”.
“ At least some of them have had the types of side effect of the Pfizer vaccine that we know about already from the clinical trials – so fever , diarrhoea , not eating , not drinking .
“ And so , if people are very frail to begin with , then those sort of things can be serious in that type of situation . But … the Norwegians are doing their due diligence in relation to that and going through every single one of those deaths and looking at them very carefully and we will have access to that information .”
Kelly added that , at this stage , the news of the deaths will not delay the progress of Australia ’ s vaccine strategy but added that the timeline allows Australia to look at the information that ’ s coming from countries that are rolling out the various vaccines . Pfizer is slated to be the first of the vaccines to get approval . Writing for The Conversation , Associate
Professor Nathan Bartlett , from the School
“ For those who may be more susceptible , we may want to be a little more cautious .
of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy at the University of Newcastle , said the biggest challenge for any vaccine is generating enough of an immune response to protect against the disease but not so much that a person experiences serious adverse effects .
Bartlett said : “ Where this line in the sand exists will vary across different people , but the oldest and frailest vaccine recipients are likely to be most at risk of severe , potentially life-threatening reactions . “ So for those who may be more susceptible , we may want to be a little more cautious . In approving the Pfizer vaccine , the TGA may consider advising against this particular vaccine for people who are very elderly and frail , particularly those who have other conditions and are potentially nearing the end of their lives .
“ Ideally , the vaccine should be considered on a case-by-case basis for this group , carefully weighing up the risks and benefits in each situation , based on the best available data .” ■
nursingreview . com . au | 3