Have Covid-19 vaccines been developed too quickly? Can they be trusted? Are there any side effects to vaccines that people should be aware of? Have there been any deaths? These questions still come up again and again as the vaccination campaign in Luxembourg is in full swing.
On Thursday, Luxembourg's Minister of Health Paulette Lenert answered questions from MP Marc Baum from the Leftist Party (Déi Lénk), who referred to information reported by the international press in recent weeks.
"To date, no death has been attributed to vaccination", wrote the Minister in a parliamentary reply published on Thursday. She stressed the "exhaustive review" carried out by the medicines risk assessment committee of the European agency following "concerns raised by Norway", stating that it had "not found any safety problems".
In January, the death of 33 elderly people who had been given the Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine in Norway was the cause of controversy. The European regulator eventually concluded that the deaths were unrelated to the vaccine given.
In his parliamentary question, the MP also referred to "cases of severe allergies" that have been reported around the world since the vaccination campaigns began and asked whether similar reactions had been observed in Luxembourg.
In this context, the Minister admitted that "some more or less significant effects in terms of intensity have been reported" but that no "new warning signs" had been identified to date.
Lenert assures that a "thorough analysis of each adverse reaction report" is carried out "on a case-by-case basis" in the Grand Duchy and that it takes into account the chronology of these effects and all related factors "such as the ingestion of other medicines or pre-existing conditions". The Minister also specifies that "the adverse reactions collected did not concern a particular population in terms of age or state of health" in Luxembourg.
Lenert also pointed out that before any vaccination, the patient is seen by a doctor who "draws up a health report", "checks the pre-vaccination questionnaires" and "assesses whether the person's state of health is suitable for administering the vaccine".
