Bad memories: Swedes are wary of corona vaccines

Corona vaccines developed in a very short time give hope that the pandemic will end. In the case of Meissa Chebbi, however, the success report of the pharmaceutical researchers raises the worst fears. The Swede was immunized once in the past with a substance that had just been approved ten years ago against swine flu. With a devastating result: the 21-year-old from Örebro has since suffered from narcolepsy, the incurable sleeping sickness.

Chebbi is just one of hundreds of Swedes who have experienced this side effect. Skepticism about the new corona vaccines is therefore particularly strong in Sweden. “I can’t recommend vaccination – unless the circumstances are really life-threatening,” Chebbi says.

Swedes are usually not particularly critical of vaccinations. More than 90% of children are immunized according to the recommended vaccination schedule. Even when health authorities called on the population to get vaccinated against swine flu in 2009, more than 60% of people followed the recommendation, more than in any other country in the world.

The Pandemrix vaccine from the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline was administered. Importantly, many children and young adults under the age of 30 could not tolerate the injection. They developed narcolepsy, a chronic nerve disease that makes people unable to control wakefulness and sleep.

“I have constant sleep attacks, even at the most inopportune moments: while I eat, during an interview, in class at the university,” says Chebbi of the city of Örebro. “Narcolepsy destroyed my life.”

So far, Swedish pharmaceutical insurance has recognized 440 of the 702 reported narcolepsy cases following the Pandemrix vaccination and paid a total compensation of 100 million crowns (10.6 million Swiss francs).

All vaccinations can have side effects, but they are rarely as serious as a chronic disease. Anders Tegnell, chief epidemiologist and face of the Swedish special route in the crown pandemic, was one of the experts who recommended the swine flu vaccination campaign in 2009/2010.

“Obviously we would have made a completely different decision had we known about the side effects,” says Tegnell today. “But they were completely unknown and a surprise to us all.”

The serious consequences of the vaccination campaign have remained in the memory of the Swedes to this day. According to a survey by the Novus opinion research institute, 26% do not want to be vaccinated against the corona virus, mainly for fear of unknown side effects. 28 percent are undecided.

Babis Stefanides is one of the skeptics. “I’m not going to get vaccinated,” says the 36-year-old from Stockholm. “There are simply too many unanswered questions.”

Epidemiologist Tegnell understands the concerns. “When you have a new vaccine that we don’t know much about, for a disease that we don’t know much about, obviously everyone wants more information before making a decision,” he says.

Hannah Laine also fears the side effects, but still wants to vaccinate herself and her three children. “We have to take responsibility for the elderly and the sick,” explains the Stockholm social worker.

In order to quickly identify the possible side effects of a corona vaccine, a vaccination registry will be established in Sweden. According to health officials, at least 60 percent of the population must be vaccinated to stop the spread of the virus. Meissa Chebbi still wants to wait and see: “I will only get vaccinated after about five years, when we know what the risks are.”