Norwegian health regulators say Covid vaccines made by AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson should only be offered to people who volunteer for the shots.
The country’s Institute for Public Health recommended neither should routinely be used because of ‘serious side effects’, with both jabs linked to a tiny risk of suffering serious blood clots.
But Norway’s advisory committee claimed the vaccines should be made available for people willing to accept the risk. Government officials are set to make a final decision later today.
Data on clots has spooked health chiefs across Europe, with Denmark stopping the use of the jab completely and other nations restricting its use to older age groups.
Britain has already recommended all under-40s should be offered an alternative to the Oxford-made jab — but only because infection rates are so low.
UK health chiefs say the benefits of the two-dose jab for younger adults, who rarely get very ill with Covid, no longer clearly outweighs the risks.
Regulators say the risk of suffering a blood clot after the jab is vanishingly small, but is higher in younger age groups at an estimated one in 60,000. Clots are happening alongside low platelet levels, a condition named thrombocytopenia.
J&J’s single-dose jab has also been linked to the same rare complication. However, it has yet to be approved for use in Britain.
Norway suspended the roll out of AstraZeneca’s vaccine on March 11, after health regulators spotted eight rare blood clots out of 130,000 people jabbed. Four of the affected recipients died.
This equated to a risk of about one in 20,000. For comparison, the chance of finding a four-leaf clover is around one in 10,000, according to Cambridge-based scientist and published author David Bradley.
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SOURCE: Daily Mail, Luke Andrews