Sweden will pause the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine for people born 1991 and later after reports of possible rare side effects, such as myocarditis, the Swedish health agency said on Wednesday.
“The Swedish Public Health Agency has decided to suspend the use of Moderna’s vaccine Spikevax, for everyone born 1991 and later, for precautionary reasons,” it said in a statement. “The cause is signals of an increased risk of side effects such as myocarditis and pericarditis. However, the risk of being affected is very small,” it said.
The pause will last until December 1. “The connection is especially clear when it comes to Moderna’s vaccine Spikevax, especially after the second dose,” the health agency said, adding the risk of being affected was very small.
A Moderna spokesperson said in an email the company was aware of the decisions by regulators in Denmark and Sweden to pause the use of its vaccine in younger individuals because of the rare risk of myocarditis and or pericarditis.
“These are typically mild cases and individuals tend to recover within a short time following standard treatment and rest,” they wrote. “The risk of myocarditis is substantially increased for those who contract COVID-19, and vaccination is the best way to protect against this.”
Denmark said that, while it used the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as its main option for people aged 12 to 17 years, it had decided to pause giving the Moderna vaccine to people below 18 according to a ‘precautionary principle’. The label for both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were changed in the U.S. to reflect the warning, though usage was never paused.
