Three young women have received approximately ISK 10 million (USD 73,000, EUR 68,000) each in damages from the Icelandic state because they contracted narcolepsy after being given swine flu vaccinations in 2009 and 2010 and now suffer permanent disabilities because of the disease.
“A swine flu epidemic was anticipated and the authorities propagated the vaccinations,” Supreme Court judge Lára V. Júlíusdóttir, who represented the three women, told Vísir on Friday. Her protégées were all in their teens when they were vaccinated.
It’s believed that the girls had had an underlying predisposition to narcolepsy—which results in them falling asleep unpredictably, requiring them to take medication—and that the vaccine had evoked the disease. Such incidents have also been reported in the other Nordic countries.
Lára criticized the authorities for the long time it took to pay out the damages—even though the connection between the disease and the vaccine was quickly recognized—and the lengthy process of evaluating the level of her protégées’ disabilities.
