Finland halts Moderna vaccinations for young men

RT.COM, 7 OCT, 2021-Finland

has decided it will pause rolling out Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine to men born in 1991 and later due to concerns about the rare side effect of heart inflammation postinoculation, following Nordic nations Sweden and Denmark.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, the director of Finland’s National Institute for Health and Welfare, Mika Salminen, announced Helsinki’s halt on offering Moderna’s Spikevax jab to its younger male population.

“A Nordic study involving Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark found that men under the age of 30 who received Moderna Spikevax had a slightly higher risk than others of developing myocarditis,” he explained.

Salminen said that while the heart inflammation often went away on its own in a few days, he recommended instead that this demographic be inoculated with Pfizerbiontech’s vaccine, marketed as Comirnaty.

The director also said young male Finns who have had their first dose of Spikevax would receive Comirnaty for their second. He insisted it was still important to get the second dose to get maximum protection against the virus.