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Friday, May. 7, 2021

Did Norwegian scientists say it was less risky to catch COVID-19 than to take the AstraZeneca vaccine?

Marlo Lee, Lead Stories
no

An article published online takes a report from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health and spins it to make it seem as though having the coronavirus would be better than getting the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"No, we have never said that catching COVID is safer than taking the vaccine. We think that the AstraZeneca vaccine is a good vaccine," Geir Bukholm, director of Infection Control and Prevention at the NIPH, told Lead Stories.

Use of the AstraZeneca vaccine was put on hold in Norway in March because of "rare but severe" incidents including blood clots, low platelet counts and hemorrhaging, according to the NIPH.

Now, since Norway has a low infection rate and most of the nation's elderly have already been vaccinated or soon will be, its younger population can wait for a vaccine alternative, according to the NIPH.

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