Re: Covid-19: Norway investigates 23 deaths in frail elderly patients after vaccination
Dear Editor
The MHRA’s ambiguous response to publish all suspected adverse reactions to Covid vaccines in the “future” is surely a matter of grave concern given the recent reports of deaths in Norwegian care home residents following administration of a Covid vaccine.
Surely the MHRA would seek to reassure the public in the UK that a similar tragedy is not occurring here by publishing the ADR reports with some urgency?
Why has the MHRA not followed the example set by the equivalent body in Norway by publishing weekly reports of adverse reactions to Covid vaccine? Why, even now, is there no concrete undertaking to provide full transparency re adverse reaction reports to the public on a weekly basis?
“At the highest political level the public has been promised full transparency of the reported ADRs of the covid-19 vaccines. The Norwegian Medicines Agency will publish weekly reports.” (1)
Perhaps it’s worth remembering that the post marketing surveillance systems in Norway, Finland, Sweden, France and Portugal previously led the way in the early reporting of cases of narcolepsy following administration of the Pandemrix vaccine in 2010.(2) Following on from those early reports, the full scale of the problem eventually became apparent with many young people now receiving compensation through the courts in respect of their narcolepsy and cataplexy.
It will take time to investigate the underlying and contributory factors involved in the deaths of the Norwegian care home residents but in the meantime should we not be asking questions over the apparent reticence of our MHRA to provide a real time tally of the Covid vaccine adverse reaction reports received in the UK on a weekly basis?
Rapid Response:
Re: Covid-19: Norway investigates 23 deaths in frail elderly patients after vaccination
Dear Editor
The MHRA’s ambiguous response to publish all suspected adverse reactions to Covid vaccines in the “future” is surely a matter of grave concern given the recent reports of deaths in Norwegian care home residents following administration of a Covid vaccine.
Surely the MHRA would seek to reassure the public in the UK that a similar tragedy is not occurring here by publishing the ADR reports with some urgency?
Why has the MHRA not followed the example set by the equivalent body in Norway by publishing weekly reports of adverse reactions to Covid vaccine? Why, even now, is there no concrete undertaking to provide full transparency re adverse reaction reports to the public on a weekly basis?
“At the highest political level the public has been promised full transparency of the reported ADRs of the covid-19 vaccines. The Norwegian Medicines Agency will publish weekly reports.” (1)
Perhaps it’s worth remembering that the post marketing surveillance systems in Norway, Finland, Sweden, France and Portugal previously led the way in the early reporting of cases of narcolepsy following administration of the Pandemrix vaccine in 2010.(2) Following on from those early reports, the full scale of the problem eventually became apparent with many young people now receiving compensation through the courts in respect of their narcolepsy and cataplexy.
It will take time to investigate the underlying and contributory factors involved in the deaths of the Norwegian care home residents but in the meantime should we not be asking questions over the apparent reticence of our MHRA to provide a real time tally of the Covid vaccine adverse reaction reports received in the UK on a weekly basis?
(1) https://legemiddelverket.no/english/covid-19-and-medicines/vaccines-agai...
(2) https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/ese.15.38.19670-en?craw...
Competing interests: No competing interests