• Wednesday, 20 November 2024

Sweden suspends use of Moderna covid-19 vaccine for younger people

Sweden suspends use of Moderna covid-19 vaccine for younger people
Stockholm, 6 October 2021 (dpa/MIA) — Moderna's covid-19 vaccine will no longer be administered to people under 30 years old in Sweden for the time being. The country's health authority has decided to stop the use of the US company's vaccine until Dec. 1 for those born in 1991 and younger, as a precautionary measure. The reason for this is evidence of an increased risk of side effects such as inflammation of the cardiac muscle (myocardium) or the heart sac (pericardium), the authority said on Wednesday. However, the risk of being affected is extremely low, it said. The affected age group should instead receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the authority recommended. Vaccination against covid-19 is offered to everyone over the age of 12 in Sweden. So far, 84 percent of all citizens over the age of 16 in the country have received at least one vaccination jab, and almost 78 percent are fully vaccinated.