A review of Norr Media shows that the vast majority of the country's 21 regions do not charge a fee at all if they refuse to take the vaccine they are given at the time of vaccination.
Three regions charge SEK 200 for missed care visits, but Norrbotten is the only county that charges a fee of SEK 450.
Political decisions behind
- It is political decisions that form the basis for the fees when we visit the care, says Pia Näsvall, vaccine coordinator for the Norrbotten Region.
She continues:
- Based on what applies, we could not have done otherwise.
Then you would have had to make new decisions.
Extremely small risk of side effects
There are reports around the country that people are saying no to Astra Zeneca's covid-19 vaccine.
The reason is that the vaccine is not trusted because a few patients have suffered from severe side effects.
Pia Näsvall says that she can understand that people are thinking, but at the same time says that the risk of serious side effects is very small.
- The serious side effects have affected younger people and they are extremely few when compared to all the millions of doses given.
Increased vaccine availability - choose a vaccine
With increased vaccine availability, it can be the case that you can choose a vaccine, says Pia Näsvall.
In any case, the region hopes to be able to tell patients from which company the vaccine comes from at the time of booking.
- Had we had unlimited amounts of vaccines of all those varieties, this would not have been an issue, but it would have been possible to choose.
But that has not been the case.
Now we hope we have a better future with more vaccines.
Hear more about why the Norrbotten Region charges a fee of SEK 450 for those who refuse the Astra Zeneca vaccine.