Mika Salminen, director of the Finnish health institute, said
Finland would instead give Pfizer's vaccine to men born in 1991 and
later. Finland offers shots to people aged 12 and over.
"A Nordic study involving Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark found
that men under the age of 30 who received Moderna Spikevax had a
slightly higher risk than others of developing myocarditis," he
said.
Swedish and Danish health officials had announced on Wednesday they
would pause the use of the Moderna vaccine for all young adults and
children, citing the same unpublished study.
Norwegian health officials reiterated on Wednesday that they
recommended men under the age of 30 opt for Pfizer's vaccine.
The Finnish institute said the Nordic study would be published
within a couple of weeks and preliminary data had been sent to the
European Medicines Agency (EMA) for further assessment.
The EMA's safety committee concluded in July that such inflammatory
heart conditions could occur in very rare cases following
vaccination with Spikevax or the Pfizer/BioNTech Comirnaty jab, more
often in younger men after the second dose.
[to top of second column] |
Regulators in the United
States, EU and the World Health Organization
have however stressed that the benefits of shots
based on the mRNA technology used by Moderna and
Pfizer-BioNTech in preventing COVID-19 continue
to outweigh the risks.
A Moderna spokesperson said late on Wednesday it
was aware of the decisions by the Swedish and
Danish regulators.
"These are typically mild cases and individuals
tend to recover within a short time following
standard treatment and rest. The risk of
myocarditis is substantially increased for those
who contract COVID-19, and vaccination is the
best way to protect against this."
Italy's Health Minister Roberto Speranza told
reporters Italy was not planning to suspend the
Moderna vaccine and said European countries
should work together more closely to coordinate
better.
"We have to trust international authorities,
starting with EMA which is our reference agency
and has expressed very clear judgments on the
matter," he said.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto in Helsinki and Emilio
Parodi in Milan; Editing by Alex Richardson and
Alison Williams)
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