FHI sends questions to thousands of vaccinated – VG

The vaccination with AstraZeneca was stopped two weeks ago, after reports of suspected serious side effects.

On Friday, FHI chose to extend the break until after Easter, until April 15, because they believe they still do not have enough data to make a decision.

There are three things in particular FHI wants to know more about:

• Is there an increased incidence of the combination of blood clots, bleeding and low platelet counts among those who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine compared to the unvaccinated?
• If so, what is the reason for such a connection?
• Are there any factors in the patients that may have contributed to the condition such as age, gender or other underlying diseases / conditions?

One of the things they are now doing to find out is to send out questions to thousands of people, who have previously participated in major health surveys.

Epidemiologist Per Magnus is leading this work.

– We ask over 100,000 people every 14 days – then we can compare people who have received one or the other vaccine, with those who have not received, he says to VG.

This they will ask about

There are two major health surveys in Norway – the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Survey (MOBA) and the Norwegian Influenza Study (NorFlu).

– There are many who have answered questionnaires since last year. We follow them. And now that the vaccination has begun, we are also asking about side effects, he explains.

In these health surveys, around 4,000 to 5,000 people have received AstraZeneca, and the same applies to Pfizer, according to Magnus.

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NIPH is still working on discussing exactly what to ask. But they will post specific questions that may say something about whether more people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine have symptoms of the particular course of the disease – without having become so seriously ill that it has been detected by being admitted to hospital.

Then this can be checked against what those who have received Pfizer, and those who have not received a vaccine, have answered.

– You can ask about skin bleeding, nosebleeds, if you bleed when you brush your teeth, or if women have heavy menstrual bleeding. And then we can ask openly. We have asked some so far, but have not been able to analyze the data properly. After Easter, we will start getting some more data.

No direct causal link has been established between the AstraZeneca vaccine and the serious cases in Norway, but experts who have examined patients believe it is likely. that the vaccine triggered a rare combination: blood clots, bleeding and low platelet counts.

When FHI receives more data from the health surveys, they can also start looking at whether there is something they who report on any side effects have in common.

– We have background data from previous questionnaires that include previous illnesses, education, age, gender, occupation, whether they have been exposed to anything else at the same time, he says.

Will compare blood tests

The participants are people who are asked regularly, and you can see what percentage have answered yes to specific questions.

– We can also call in participants in health examinations to take more blood samples. In the week after Easter, we will see if we can call in people.

It is something including the hospital in Østfold has already started with.

– Can it be too late after the vaccine has been taken if you call in after Easter?

– You can check for changes in all possible proteins, level of it – thus one can perhaps understand what mechanism this has been. Those changes may be there even if the vaccine itself was taken several weeks ago. If there are changes in metabolism, you can see it in changes in genetic material, and even methylation of DNA, says Magnus.

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He says FHI since last year has obtained blood samples from about 10,000 participants in the health surveys to measure the presence of antibodies to coronavirus.

– These samples are valuable as a basis for comparison when we now take new samples of those who have been vaccinated.

While Norway has vaccinated 130,000 with AstraZeneca, and six serious cases of this type of suspected side effect have been reported, the United Kingdom has set 11 million doses and only reported five cases of the serious course of the disease.

Magnus says you can also look at whether there is something special about Norway, and whether there is a cofactor that is found here and is not as common, for example there.

– I think you want to think about everything possible, but it is very strange if there should be something to do with genetics. We are not that different from others in northern European countries. It can be a different exposure – in theory, everything from what you eat, what medications you use, to what other infections are in the landscape can be important.

These vaccines are now approved for the EU and Norway:

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