Scandinavian Countries Discontinue Offering the SpikeVax Vaccine to Young Men

The Finnish Institute of Health and Welfare (THL) announced on October 7, 2021, it would 'pause' the use of Moderna's SpikeVax COVID vaccine to men below the age of 30, reported the Helsinki Times.

The Finnish Government had recently amended its coronavirus vaccination offering to included young men in August 2021. 

The Finnish health institute indicated a report would be published soon detailing this decision.

Additionally, Mika Salminen, Director at THL, confirmed Findland would continue offering the mRNA Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech) vaccine to men born in 1991 and later. 

Before this change, Finland's COVID-19 vaccinations in people 12 years of age and over had reached 72% (two doses). 

Previously, the Swedish Public Health Agency confirmed to EuroNews it would stop using the SpikeVax vaccine for young people, as data pointed to an increase of myocarditis and pericarditis cases.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) confirmed in July 2021 that inflammatory heart conditions could occur in very rare cases following vaccination with Spikevax or Comirnaty vaccines in younger men after the second dose.

And allergic reactions have also occurred in people receiving the SpikeVax vaccine.

The EMA says safety measures will be implemented for Spikevax in line with the EU safety monitoring plan for COVID-19 vaccines to ensure that new safety information is rapidly collected and analyzed. 

As for all medicines, data on the use of Spikevax are continuously monitored. In addition, suspected side effects reported with Spikevax are carefully evaluated, and any necessary action is taken to protect patients.

The European Medicines Agency is a decentralized agency of the European Union (EU) responsible for the scientific evaluation, supervision, and safety monitoring of medicines in the EU. An independent Management Board governs the EMA.

Update: Iceland announced similar changes to its vaccination plan on Oct. 8th, reported local media.