Norway has expressed its concern about the safety of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for elderly people with underlying health conditions, after the death of 29 people, Bloomberg reported.

Bloomberg reported that 42,000 people have received the first shot of the vaccine in the country so far, with Norway focusing on groups deemed as the most at-risk of contracting the virus, including senior citizens.

As such, the Norwegian Medicines Agency has suggested that Covid-19 vaccines might have too much risk for the elderly and terminally ill, according to a press release.

All of the deaths are related to terminally ill elderly patients

In a separate response to Bloomberg, the Norwegian Medicines Agency said that all of the deaths thus far are related to "elderly people with serious basic disorders."

The average age of the group that has been reportedly affected is about 75.

The agency added:

"Most people have experienced the expected side effects of the vaccine, such as nausea and vomiting, fever, local reactions at the injection site, and worsening of their underlying condition."

Vaccine trials did not include people with severe illnesses or those above the age of 85

The agency further highlighted in its press release that the large studies on the vaccine did not include patients with unstable or acute illnesses,  and included few participants over 85 years of age.

In adding that correlation between receiving the vaccine and death could not be ruled out, the agency explained:

"All deaths that occur within the first few days of vaccination are carefully assessed. We cannot rule out that adverse reactions to the vaccine occurring within the first days following vaccination (such as fever and nausea) may contribute to more serious course and fatal outcome in patients with severe underlying disease."

Pfizer and BioNTech to work with Norwegian authorities

Both Pfizer and BioNTech said that they will work with Norwegian health authorities to investigate the deaths.

A statement by Pfizer said that it has found the number of incidents thus far is "not alarming, and in line with expectations."

Norwegian officials said that autopsies have been conducted on the 13 people who died a short time after receiving their first dose of the vaccine.

"Another 16 deaths are currently being assessed", the agency noted.

U.S. CDC: Severe allergic reactions are rare

Meanwhile, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has also added that severe allergic reactions to the vaccine are rare, according to U.S. media The Hill.

The CDC highlighted that during a 10-day period in December, only 21 people experienced a severe allergic reaction to the vaccine, out of 2 million shots administered.

Most of them had a history of allergies.

The director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Nancy Messonnier, was quoted as saying:

"Of course, we all would hope that any vaccine would have zero adverse events, but even at 11 cases per million doses administered, it's a very safe vaccine."

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