An elderly woman in Australia died three hours after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
Early this year, Norway reported 23 deaths among elderly patients who had received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The deaths occurred within 6 days of the jab. However, Norwegian authorities did not identify any link between the deaths and the vaccine. Now, an 82-year-old nursing home resident in Australia has suffered a similar fate. The elderly woman received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine at 10 in the morning. Three hours after receiving the vaccine, the woman died. She was a resident of the Blue Care Yurana Aged Care Facility in Queensland.
However, it is unclear whether her death occurred as a result of the vaccine. Moreover, the woman also suffered from a lung disease at the time of her death.
It can be expected that older and more frail people in an aged care setting may pass away due to progression of underlying disease or natural causes, this does not mean the vaccine has contributed to this
Paul Kelly, Australian Chief Medical Officer
No Causal Link
Australia began its coronavirus vaccine rollout in late February of this year. The country has currently granted approval to two vaccines: AstraZeneca-Oxford and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The first round of vaccines will go to frontline health workers, those aged over 70, and adults with underlying health conditions.
Both the approved vaccines can cause side effects such as fever, chills, muscle pain, and pain at the injection site. According to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) 60% of people wo receive the Pfizer vaccine experience fatigue. While 50% develop a headache.
Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly stated that over a thousand people die every week in nursing homes. Therefore, stressing that there’s no evidence of a causal link between the Pfizer vaccine and the woman’s death. The TGA has further specified that there is no additional risk of vaccination with the Pfizer vaccine in the elderly.
