400 file Covid vaccine side effect claims as coverage nears 7m doses | Yle Uutiset | yle.fi

A total of 399 people in Finland have so far filed claims for damages related to experiencing adverse effects from a coronavirus vaccine.

Under Finnish law, people can apply for monetary compensation for side effects caused by medicines or vaccines which have been authorised for use in Finland. The claims are handled by the Finnish Mutual Insurance Company.

The firm's CEO, Tiina Hellgren, told Yle that the number of claims is "not surprising," considering that as of Wednesday 1 September, some 6.7 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed in Finland.

Hellgren added that the insurer has issued decisions on a little under half the claims received, with 86 claims accepted and 88 refused.

"Compensation has been paid for the typical side effects related to coronavirus vaccines, such as various muscle and joint pains, allergic reactions and swollen lymph nodes," Hellgren said. "Compensation has also been paid for some other individual reasons, but for data protection reasons these cannot yet be revealed because there are so few cases."

Compensation is based on a probable causal link between the use of the medicine or vaccine and the side effect, which must be confirmed by a physician and noted in the patient's records.

With regard to claims related to serious illness or even death, Hellgren told Yle that there have been a small number of cases where unusual blood clots with low platelets have occurred in people who received Vaxzevria, formerly known as the AstraZeneca vaccine.

"Six claims have been made for such blood clots, five of which have been accepted and one case is still pending. There were fewer than five claims in which deaths have occurred, so unfortunately we cannot discuss these cases in public," she said.