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Denmark ’in dialogue’ over swap for AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines

Denmark is in discussions with a number of countries over exchanging its shelved Covid-19 vaccines from AstraZeneca.

Published: 20 April 2021 12:16 CEST
Denmark ’in dialogue’ over swap for AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccines
Health miniseasing of Covid-19 rester Magnus Heunicke. Photo: Martin Sylvest/Ritzau Scanpix

Health minister Magnus Heunicke confirmed that discussions were taking place on Monday.

“Here and now, we still need safe and approved vaccines. That is Pfizer and Moderna at this time,” Heunicke said.

“If we can arrange a swap deal with other countries whereby we send AstraZeneca vaccines to them and we get some of their Pfizer vaccines, that would naturally be interesting,” he added.

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The minister said that “the sooner we can get the population vaccinated, the faster we can lift Denmark out of the pandemic”.

He did not reveal the identity of the countries with which Denmark is in discussion.

“It is too early to say whether we will be successful but it would certainly be of great interest for us,” Heunicke said.

No lack of interest has been shown in acquiring the Danish vaccines, according to the minister.

“As there are many countries around us which have an epidemic on a completely different level to Denmark,” he said.

Last week, Denmark said it would stop using the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in its national inoculation programme, becoming the first European country to do so over suspected rare but serious side effects.

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

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People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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