Reports of COVID-19 Vaccine Safety in Norway: Some Titles Could Have Been Written Better
News reports about 29 frail elderly people dying after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination in Norway were an exercise in critical reading. Some of them were especially scary if one saw the news item titles alone, without clicking through to the article and reading the actual accompanying text.
Yes. The headlines can look scary and can be mis-used by antivaxxers and mis-interpreted by people with vaccine hesitancy. But the caveat here is these were people in the middle-old (75-84 years) and oldest-old age (85+) groups, plus they were frail. They were so frail that they live in aged care homes – i.e., these were people who were unable to live independently.
Objectively, there are a lot of people anyway who die in these age groups, whether they get the vaccine or not. Norway’s health authorities don’t know yet for certain whether if it’s the vaccine itself, or the side effects like nausea and fever – symptoms that in a younger, healthier person would be bothersome but not deadly. In a frail person, any health event can tip them over the edge.
So yes, note that it is concerning and needs investigation, but overall getting the vaccine is still relatively safe for the general public. The responsible way of reporting this (and some of these headlines DID get it that part correct) is to say something about frail elderly, and not just elderly. How many people read the headline alone? A lot. While a clickable, attractive headline is ideal, there has to be a balance between clickable and clarity.
A sampling of titles in the news:
Norway Raises Concern Over Vaccine Jabs for the Elderly
Over 20 people vaccinated with Pfizer vaccine die in Norway – media
Is the Pfizer vaccine the culprit in elderly deaths in Norway?
Norway flags vaccine risk in the very old
FDA hopes deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines won’t scare Filipinos
Covid-19: Norway investigates 23 deaths in frail elderly patients after vaccination
