On Friday, the National Institute of Public Health informed the country’s municipalities, health trusts and state administrators that they now recommend prioritizing setting a refresher dose with coronavina vaccine over influenza vaccine for people over 65 in Norway.
This is stated in a information letter which FHI published on Monday morning. The letter was sent about a month after FHI recommended the municipalities to prioritize influenza vaccination in front of the refreshing dose for the elderly. The letters are signed by vaccine manager Geir Bukholm and department director Are Stuwitz Berg.
When FHI initially recommended prioritizing influenza vaccination, it was informed, among other things, that the distribution capacity used for refrigerated transport of corona vaccines in October would be used for the distribution of influenza vaccines.
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FHI: No problem
Chief physician Preben Aavitsland at the National Institute of Public Health tells Dagbladet that re-prioritization in many municipalities will not be a problem.
– If a municipality has limited vaccination capacity, we ask them to first vaccinate the elderly over 65 years with a refreshing dose of corona vaccine before they vaccinate the same with the flu vaccine, says Aavitsland and continues:
– In many municipalities, this is not a problem as GPs take care of influenza vaccination, as they have done for many years while coronary vaccination takes place at a municipal vaccination center.
Aavitsland says that the number of set refreshment doses will increase rapidly.
– More than 100,000 refreshment doses have already been given, and the number will increase rapidly in the coming weeks as the municipalities get people called in and the municipalities get vaccines delivered.
FHI expects lower support for a refresher dose in Norway compared with the first two doses. Among other things, they have found that as many as 30 percent of healthcare professionals are negative or insecure on whether they will accept an offer of a refreshing dose.
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– That was right
The reason why FHI recommends the municipalities to re-prioritize is that the spread of influenza virus is delayed, while the spread of covid-19 is increasing rapidly. At the same time, recent data, according to FHI, show that the vaccines’ ability to prevent the spread of infection decreases somewhat over time, and that the risk of becoming seriously ill may be higher for the very elderly even if they have been fully vaccinated.
Despite the fact that FHI has now turned around, Aavitsland believes that they made the right choice.
– We believe it was right to run one and a half million flu vaccines and that the municipalities started the vaccination in October so that the risk groups and health personnel received their flu vaccine in case the flu season should start earlier, as the RS virus epidemic did. Fortunately, the flu epidemic did not come earlier than normal, says Aavitsland and continues:
– Now we can use all transport capacity, and the municipalities can use almost all vaccination capacity for a refreshing dose of corona vaccine for the elderly.
