Since vaccinations against Covid-19 began late last year in Switzerland 11.1 million shots have been administered to 5.8 million people. Over this period, 9,834 people have reported reactions coinciding with vaccination, of which 3,396 were considered serious, a ratio of around 1 serious report per 1,700 people.
Swissmedic, Switzerland’s drug approval and monitoring agency, said that reports of adverse reactions received and analysed to date do not alter the positive benefit-risk profile of the COVID-19 vaccines used in Switzerland and largely confirm their known side effects profile.
The average age of those affected was 52.6, with 13.6% aged 75 or over. In the cases classified as serious, the average age was 55.4 years, and for reports coinciding with death it was 79.8 years.
About half of the reports were submitted by medical professionals, while 4,909 or 49,9% came directly from patients. The majority (64.5%) of the reports concerned women.
In 155 serious cases, the people concerned died after receiving the vaccine. However, despite a chronological correlation, there is no concrete evidence to suggest that the vaccination was the cause of death, said Swissmedic. 155 represents 1 in 37,000 or less than 0.003% of those vaccinated.
By contrast, potentially 0.22%1 of the global population has died from the SARS-CoV-2 virus, while many more have been affected by Long Covid.
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1An excess death calculation done by The Economist puts the global mortality figure at 17.2 million, more than three times the global tally of 5.1 million. 17.2 million represents 0.22% of the global population.
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