Iceland suspended this Friday (10/08/2021) the use of the COVID-19 vaccine from the American laboratory Moderna, citing an increased risk of heart inflammation. “As there is a sufficient supply of the Pfizer vaccine in the country (…), the chief of epidemiology has decided not to use the Moderna vaccine in Iceland,” reads a statement posted on the website of the national Health Directorate.
This decision was motivated by “the increased incidence of myocarditis and pericarditis after vaccination with the Moderna vaccine,” the chief of epidemiology said in the note. For two months, Iceland has administered an additional dose “almost exclusively” with the Moderna vaccine to Icelanders vaccinated with Janssen, a single-dose serum marketed by the American laboratory Johnson & Johnson, as well as to elderly and immunosuppressed people who have received two doses of another vaccine.
This will not affect the vaccination campaign on this island of 370,000 inhabitants, where 88% of the population over 12 years of age is already fully vaccinated. Sweden and Finland have also suspended the use of the Moderna vaccine, but only for those under 30 years of age, and Denmark and Norway have formally discouraged it for those under 18, due to the risk of inflammation of the myocardium, heart muscle, and of the pericardium, the membrane that covers the heart. According to the Swedish authorities, in most cases the inflammations are benign. (afp)
– .
