Norway has ~10 deaths from Covid in the <60 age range throughout the entire pandemic, and 3 deaths from AstraZeneca-related side effects in the same age group.
But only a small minority of the <60 population has been vaccinated; almost exclusively healthcare workers. You would expect the deaths from side effects to eclipse the number of covid deaths if vaccination continued.
So it's a pretty safe assumption at this point that AZ is a bad option for younger age groups in countries with similar numbers, assuming that other vaccines will soon be available (they will)
Sure, but at the same time 3 is too small a number to have any confidence in that expectation.
Looking at the rates from other countries where AZ has been deployed more heavily, it seems like Norway mostly had bad luck, and the rate is fairly small.
Though as you say for the younger population the risks with covid are also small and the choice ultimately depends on the infection rate in the country.
An interesting question is if there actually is any public health argument in favour of vaccinating the inhabitants in the countries that have managed to keep it out completely? There the choice is between taking on the risks of the vaccine versus just not allowing travel, and the public health impact of the latter isn't very clear.
Northern Europe's greater observed incidence of this side effect is obviously one of the deciding factors of Denmark's decision. It could be a statistical anomaly, but concluding is premature at this point, especially when comparing with globally-reported AstraZeneca-related blood clots.
Even at half the incidence of deaths reported in Norway, which would be on the order of 1:100,000, it puts the risk of a 25-year old dying from the vaccine at ~5 times the risk of dying of a Covid infection. At one tenth incidence, it's an even bet. That seems unlikely.
This seems like a pretty obvious decision to me, when looking at the Covid incidence in these countries. Given that alternative vaccines are available. I'm surprised at the level of controversy, honestly. Given the presumed science-based background for the topic. Just use one of the others.
Lies, damn lies, statistics, and statistics with low sample sizes.
In the UK they've had 13.5 million people under 60 vaccinated as of April 8, and a grand total of 79 cases and 19 deaths. The number of COVID deaths in people under 60 is more than 9000.
You're blaming the qualitative difference in the observations on sample size when Denmark, Norway and Germany all observe the same effect to differing degrees - namely, rare blood clots approximately an order of magnitude more frequent than data from Europe as a whole indicates.
You should at least acknowledge that the UK has a per-capita Covid lethality of 15 times that of Norway, and that this might also be a relevant factor in these decisions.
The expected overall delay from not using AstraZeneca until all adults have been vaccinated is 3-4 weeks.
Current death rate in Denmark is 2/day. Population 5.8 Million.