DANIEL KARMANN
Prime Minister Erna Solberg announced this on Wednesday evening at a press conference in Oslo. Her government is following the recommendations of a committee of experts and the national health institute FHI, which both recently advised that Astrazeneca’s corona vaccine and Johnson & Johnson’s preparation should be removed from the vaccination program due to the risk of rare but serious side effects.
The preparation from Johnson & Johnson will not be removed from the program for the time being, but the use will continue to be paused, said Solberg. The government is looking into the extent to which this vaccine can be offered to those who want to be vaccinated with it voluntarily.
The recommendations of the expert committee were based, among other things, on the current infection situation in Norway, which is quite good compared to other countries. The Scandinavian non-EU country stopped the use of Astrazeneca as a precautionary measure on March 11 after rare blood clots occurred in people after the vaccination, including deaths. Before the stop, around 138,000 people in the country had been vaccinated with the drug. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has not yet been administered.
Norway’s Scandinavian partner Denmark had already completely removed Astrazeneca from the vaccination program a good month ago.