Denmark regularly reporting vaccine side effects

Latest report doesn’t raise any alarms

The Danish Medicines Agency (Lægemiddelstyrelsen or LMST) has been charged with monitoring any and all vaccine side effects since the vaccination effort in Denmark began on December 27th.

It has been releasing regular reports almost weekly since.

Here are its latest findings.

The agency says it has received 1,073 reports of suspected adverse reactions from the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. It says all but 177 were reported after the second shot. Most of the side effects were categorized as non-serious with things like injection site pain, headaches, fatigue, and a fever that lasted a day or two. 

LMST says of the 219,684 first dose vaccinations and 169,905 second inoculations there were 48 reports of severe allergic reactions of which 19 were anaphylaxis. To put that into context that is 0.01% of all Pfizer vaccinations to date resulted in a severe allergic reaction while 0.004% suffered an anaphylactic reaction. 

That said, as stated in previous reports, the agency has determined “anaphylactic reactions occur a little more frequently than expected.”

The Danish Medicines Agency says only a few of the people suffering a severe reaction required a brief hospital stay and in all cases people were treated and released. 

It also says there have been 31 reports of deaths after receiving a Pfizer vaccination to date but have concluded “that it is less likely that there is a connection with the vaccine” adding “that it is overwhelmingly probable that the deaths are due to other conditions.” The Pfizer vaccine was the first one approved for use within the E.U, it has been administered much more than other vaccines, and it has been used overwhelmingly to vaccinate very elderly people, most in care homes, who are in many cases battling other underlying health conditions. 

As of the latest LMST report on vaccine side effects there have been 12,259 first and 1,522 second doses of the Moderna vaccine administered. It has received 24 reports of side effects with what it calls expected side effects like redness, swelling, and pain at the injection site, fatigue, headache, and a fever. 

They report one case of anaphylaxis to date or 0.007% of all Moderna vaccine inoculations so far. 

The Danish Medicines Agency reported out of 18,357 AstraZeneca vaccinations so far there were 99 reported adverse reactions, or 0.53% of vaccinations. 

It says the side effects were non-serious with things like a fever, headache, chills, and muscle and joint pain all of which worked themselves out in a day or two.

There has not been any reported anaphylactic reactions.