A Boston doctor with a history of allergies had a severe allergic reaction to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine.
Hossein Sadrzadeh told CNN that after he was vaccinated at Boston Medical Center on Thursday, he felt his heart rate rise to 150 beats per minute.
Sadrzadeh also told the news outlet that within minutes he felt “in my tongue and also in my throat with a kind of weird feeling of tingling and numbness, the same reaction I had before to my shellfish allergy.” He also said his blood pressure dropped so low that a monitor couldn’t detect it.
Sadrzadeh used his EpiPen and was rushed to the emergency room where he was given medication. The New York Times. He was released from care four hours later and told the newspaper he felt fully recovered from Friday.
The Hill has contacted the Boston Medical Center, Moderna, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for comment.
The incident is the first of its kind to be reported after Moderna’s vaccine was approved and distributed by federal health authorities, and it comes as the FDA has investigated several reports of allergic reactions to the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.
Peter Marks, who heads the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said last weekend a chemical called polyethylene glycol, which is present in both vaccines, “could be the culprit.”
At the time, the agency advised those who had had severe reactions to any component of Moderna’s vaccine in the past not to get that injection.
In light of the allergic reactions, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advise issued guidance those who have severe reactions after the first dose not to receive a second injection. The agency also says people who are allergic to vaccines or injectable therapies should consult their doctor before getting vaccinated.
However, the CDC notes that those with a history of serious allergic reactions unrelated to vaccines or injectable medications – such as food, pet, or environmental allergies – can still be vaccinated.
More than 1.94 million people have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer or Moderna since Saturday afternoon. a census from the CDC.