No, Iceland has not imposed a ban on COVID-19 vaccines

What is the claim?

Posts claiming that Iceland has purportedly banned COVID-19 vaccines are circulating on social media platforms like Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). One Facebook post carries a screenshot of an article, published on November 25, 2023, with the headline ‘Iceland Bans Covid Shots amid Soaring Sudden Deaths.’ The article was published by a website named ‘THAIMBC.’

An iteration of the post on X carried the link to the same headline published by a website called ‘Evol.’ This X post, viewed over 216,000 times, was shared on X by Jim Fergusson, a former candidate of the Brexit Party now known as the Reform UK party. Fergusson also used the hashtag #DiedSuddenly in his post. Archived links of the post can be accessed here.

Posts on social media falsely claiming Iceland has banned Covid-19 vaccines. (Source: Facebook/X/Modified by Logically Facts)

What is the truth?

We found no such notification issued by the Icelandic government. As of January 4, 2023, the  official website dedicated to COVID-19 vaccination said, “If you live or work in Iceland, you are eligible for a COVID-19 vaccination.”

Margrét Erlendsdóttir, Head of Information at Iceland’s Ministry of Health told Logically Facts, “Iceland has not banned COVID vaccines. Vaccinations for COVID-19 are ongoing.” She added that the chief epidemiologist of the country has recommended that certain groups like all children and adults with chronic heart, lung, kidney, and liver disease, obesity, diabetes, malignancy, or immunosuppressive disease caused by drugs or disease, pregnant women, and healthcare professionals who care for individuals in the risk groups listed above should get priority in vaccination.

Guðrún Aspelund, chief epidemiologist, Directorate of Health, Iceland, told USA Today, “COVID-19 vaccinations are being administered and recommended to certain high-risk groups, but with no immediate plans to vaccinate the entire population.” Logically Facts has also reached out to Iceland’s Directorate of Health for a statement and this fact-check will be updated if and when we receive a response.

Data made available on the government’s COVID-19 website show that as of March 2023, 82% of the population above the age of five in Iceland had already been fully vaccinated. Documents published by the Directorate of Health show that vaccination against COVID-19 was not available freely between May 1 and August 31, 2023, to facilitate the planning of vaccinations of at-risk groups in autumn 2023. The release said that two updated bivalent vaccines, Pfizer-BioNTech's Comirnaty and Moderna's Spikevax, would be available to adults for primary vaccinations. Another release dated October 2, 2023, stated that a COVID-19 vaccine was ready for delivery and would be used for vaccinations in the winter of 2023–2024.

Further, a local Iceland media outlet reported in October 2023 that COVID-19 vaccinations had begun again, adding that the health department, nursing homes and hospitals, and several pharmacies were offering the vaccinations. 

The above evidence establishes that claims about Iceland banning COVID-19 vaccinations are false.

Origin of the false claim

The false claim was shared by the websites—‘THAIMBC’ and ‘EVOL’ and their articles, identical in nature, contain a link to a YouTube video on a channel called ‘Brotkast.’ The channel has 767 subscribers and features speakers like Pierre Kory, whose certification was revoked by the American Board of Internal Medicine for spreading misinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. These articles offer no evidence for their claims apart from quoting a vague sentence from a local news report. The translated version of the news report cited by ‘THAIMBC’ and ‘EVOL’ also gives no concrete evidence of Iceland banning COVID-19 vaccinations. 

These websites further claimed that excess mortality in Iceland after the COVID-19 pandemic was caused by the vaccines. However, Iceland Review quoted Aspelund as saying that the COVID-19 vaccines prevented deaths. “And there is no other explanation for these deaths other than COVID-19,” she added. 

It should also be noted that the term 'sudden deaths' used in the headlines by the websites harks back to the conspiracy theory that COVID-19 vaccines have led to the deaths of thousands of people as part of a larger plan to depopulate the earth. Since the advent of the COVID-19 vaccines, there has been a trend where anti-vaxxers online share headlines about people dying, claiming that they "died suddenly," linking the death without evidence to the COVID jabs. Logically Facts has debunked many such claims, including misinformation shared in conspiracy theorist Stew Peters' film 'Died Suddenly.'

The verdict

We found no credible reports to support the claim that Iceland had banned COVID-19 vaccines. Further, several sources show that Iceland has been carrying out vaccinations for priority and high-risk groups. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.

The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.