RECENT UPDATES TO THIS STORY:
National Institute for Health and Welfare Statement – Feb 1st
# 5270
An update to a story that first emerged last August (see Finland Suspends Use of Pandemrix Vaccine),we learn today that Finland will soon release an interim report on the potential link between the Pandemrix vaccine and an unusual spike in narcolepsy which was reported in Finland, Iceland, and Sweden.
While we don’t have the results at hand, we do have a report from YLE.fi where the head of Finland's National Public Health Institute has conceded that administering the shot to children may possibly have been a mistake.
Exactly why these countries should experience a rise in narcolepsy, while other countries using the same vaccine have not reported similar problems, is unknown.
Since I’ve not seen this Interim report, there is little I can say about today’s report. You can read it at the link below.
Health Official: Swine Flu Vaccinations for Children Possibly a Mistake
published today 04:40 PM, updated today 04:45 PM
While stating that further research is warranted (and will take months), earlier reports from regulatory agencies in Europe stated that no link has been found between the Pandemrix vaccine and recent reports of narcolepsy.
On September 9th, I ran a story called Sweden: No Link Between Pandemrix And Narcolepsy, which linked to a CIDRAP report on the findings of Sweden’s Medical Products Agency’s investigation into the matter.
And two weeks later, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said its Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use had reviewed all available data and found insufficient evidence to confirm a causal link between cases of narcolepsy and the vaccine.
We’ll simply have to wait to see if this interim report has credible evidence to the contrary.
The CDC published a statement on these concerns last September, part of which states:
Pandemrix is not licensed for use in the United States. No adjuvanted influenza vaccines are licensed in the United States. The European Medicines Agency has launched a review of Pandemrix to investigate whether there is a link between cases of narcolepsy and vaccination with Pandemrix. This vaccine has been used in at least 30.8 million Europeans.
