Last March, home care nurse Tero Nikkanen started having symptoms of abdominal and joint pain as well as fever. He called emergency services for guidance and was told to head to the University Hospital in Kuopio, the city where he lives.
Emergency services initially suspected colitis, or inflammation of the colon, he said.
Around the same time, the region's hospital district had begun offering Covid vaccines to nursing staff in the area, but Nikkanen was fundamentally sceptical about taking it.
"Yes, I'm very hesitant, because the Covid vaccine has been studied for such a short period of time, I don't want to take it right away. I had a strong opinion that I wouldn't take it," Nikkanen explained.
It turned out his symptoms weren't caused by colitis, but by Covid-19.
Following his diagnosis, Nikkanen ended up in an intensive care unit briefly, breathing with the help of a ventilator. His recovery was quick, or so he thought, but post-Covid complications caused a major health ordeal requiring extensive care. He eventually recovered, but nearly six months later he said he's still hesitant to get the jabs.
The Institute for Health and Welfare (THL) has recommended that people who've had the upper respiratory disease take the vaccine around six months after they recover.
According to Hanna Nohynek, THL's chief physician, the antibodies caused by Covid-19 — which can protect against being reinfected — last at least six months.
"Exceptions may be made to either administer the vaccine earlier or later than that. But given the Delta variant, I'd prefer to give it earlier," Nohynek said, referring to the more contagious strain of the coronavirus which is causing Covid cases to shoot up in many countries, including Finland.
Hesitation
The World Health Organization (WHO) has ranked Covid vaccine hesitation among the top 10 health threats facing people around the globe.
Researcher Anna Soveri, who has studied people's attitudes about vaccines, said it was hard to know how many Covid vaccine sceptics there actually are in Finland. International studies have shown that only one or two percent of populations are generally completely against vaccines.
"At this point, more than 80 percent of people over the age of 40 have taken a Covid vaccine [in Finland]," she explained.
Soveri added that there may be a very small proportion of people who are completely opposed to being vaccinated, but that there may be a larger group who are only hesitant about the idea.
Initially, home care nurse Nikkanen thought his Covid ordeal was over after spending a night in an intensive care unit.
Following his discharge from the hospital, he spent three weeks in quarantine and his symptoms went away, and his physician said it was safe for him to return to work.
However, Nikkanen's Covid ordeal was not over.
Story continues after photo
After five days back on the job, the lymph nodes in his neck began to swell as his body temperature rose to a fever. His wife drove him to the hospital's accident and emergency wing at about three o'clock one morning.
His fever continued to rise at the hospital and he was diagnosed with a parapharyngeal abscess — an abscess deep in the neck — which was making it difficult for him to breathe. A decision was made to remove the abscess surgically.
Nikkanen's condition worsened further after he was anaesthetised, and he was admitted to an intensive care unit for more than a week.
"When I woke up in the ICU, the doctor came to tell me that the situation was really bad, saying I had pneumonia and that my lungs had collapsed and stopped working. He said that I'd been unconscious for eight days on a ventilator," he recalled.
In order to help him breathe, a tracheotomy was also performed, a procedure which involves cutting a hole into the throat to enable breathing without use of the nose or mouth.
At the beginning of his gradual convalescence, Nikkanen was unable to sit on the edge of his bed, let alone walk. The first time he became mobile was with the help of a crane that lifted him into a wheelchair.
Nikkanen said he gradually began to walk again, with the help of a physiotherapist as well as a rollator and crutches.
"The doctor couldn't confirm whether it was a [Covid-related] sequelae, but said it was possible," he said, adding that he was very grateful for the treatment he received from the staff at Kuopio Hospital, saying they saved his life.
The doctor also told him that his Covid case gave him six months of protection from being infected again. With that period nearly over, it became time for him to consider whether to get future protection from a vaccine.
Although he said his negative attitude towards the idea of being vaccinated has softened since the spring, he was still hesitant about their safety and potential side effects.
"I still have a little hesitation when I hear about some people getting blood clots [from the vaccine], joint pain and long periods of fever," he said, adding that he also wonders about long-term effects of the vaccine.
"[Maybe] it will be revealed much later on that the vaccine causes [other] diseases," he explained.
Story continues after photo
About a year and a half ago, researcher Soveri studied people's attitudes about Covid vaccines as Covid arrived in Finland.
She said it became clear that the main reason people were largely willing to take the vaccine was because it was safe.
"The secondary reason was how serious an illness people thought Covid was," she said, adding that at the time about 70 percent of people in Finland were willing to take the vaccine.
Jonas Sivelä, a senior researcher at THL, emphasised that residents were even more willing to take the vaccine as the pandemic continued.
"We've been monitoring the willingness of people in Finland to be vaccinated since April 2020 and it has only grown since then. According to the latest results, about 91 percent of residents have either already taken the vaccine or said they would," Sivelä said.
A recent government-commissioned survey, carried out by polling firm Taloustutkimus, found that about four percent said they did not plan to take a Covid vaccine.
"According to our information, strong anti-vaccine resistance is very marginal, even though it gets a lot of media coverage. That visibility does not always correspond to reality," Sivelä emphasised.
The government has said that in order to fully remove Covid-related restrictions, it would require the vaccinations of 80-90 percent of people over the age of 12.
Currently just under 30 percent of that group has still not received a single dose of the vaccine.
Sivelä said he believed that the government's vaccination goal will be reached but could not estimate when that might happen.
Covid survivor Nikkanen said that as a nurse, he does not want to spread anti-vaccine sentiments, but feels the decision to take it is a personal choice for everyone. At work, he encourages his clients to get vaccinated.
Nikkanen said it was difficult to say what, exactly, would change his mind about Covid vaccines, as not even his severe complications from the disease swayed his opinion very much.
However, the fear of getting as sick as he was again crosses his mind every now and then, he said.
There has been discussion about whether to make Covid vaccinations mandatory for caregivers. Nikkanen said he likes his job and doesn't want to change careers.
"Yes, I will take it if it becomes mandatory," he said.