Nearly two dozen Americans have experienced life-threatening allergic reactions after receiving the coronavirus vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, a new report finds.
Between December 14 and 23, a total of 21 people suffered anaphylaxis when getting their first dose, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed Wednesday.
Of those patients, 17 people had a history of allergies or allergic reactions, and 71 percent of the cases occurred within 15 minutes of vaccination.
With about 1.9 million injections administered over that period, that’s a rate of 11.1 cases of anaphylaxis per million doses.
However, the CDC says this response is “ still extraordinarily rare, ” and is urging the general public to get the vaccines when they become available to them to help curb the pandemic that has killed more than 2,000 on average in the U.S. day.
A new report from the CDC on Wednesday revealed that 21 of the 1.9 million people suffered anaphylaxis after receiving the first dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine (above)
Of the patients, 17 had a history of allergies or allergic reactions and 71% occurred within 15 minutes of vaccination, but all would have recovered. Pictured: Dr. Nick Gilpin receives his second Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine from registered nurse Susan Grant at Beaumont Health in Southfield, Michigan, Jan. 5
The 21 people who suffered from anaphylaxis were between the ages of 27 and 60, and the majority were women, with only two male patients – although the CDC says this could be because more women than men got a first dose of the vaccine.
A total of 17 had a history of allergies to a wide variety of things, including tropical fruits, bee and wasp stings, eggs, crustaceans, cats, penicillin and steroids.
Two of the patients had previous responses to vaccines, one to a rabies vaccine and the other to the H1N1 flu shot.
Seven had a history of anaphylactic shock.
According to the report, reactions occurred between two minutes and 150 minutes after the dose of Pfizer was administered.
Ninety percent of the patients were treated with epinephrine, a hormone that relaxes the airway muscles, and 19 percent – or four people – were hospitalized, including three in the ICU.
The remaining 17 percent were treated in an emergency department. Of the 20 people with follow-up information available, all were fired home or recovered.
No deaths were reported.
With 21 responses to 1,893,360 first doses, that equates to a rate of 11.1 cases of anaphylaxis per million doses.
In comparison, the flu has a rate of one case per million doses.
“This may seem high compared to the flu, but I want to assure you that this is still a rare outcome,” said Dr. Nancy Messonier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a phone call Wednesday. .
“I continue to believe that the risk of Covid makes it imperative that people go ahead and get vaccinated as soon as it becomes available to them.”
Anaphylactic shock is a serious and potentially life-threatening reaction to an allergy from food, medicine, or even some type of material.
The immune system releases chemicals that flood the body, blood pressure suddenly drops, and the airways narrow, preventing a person from breathing normally.
Symptoms usually appear within minutes and include hives, a weak pulse, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and a swollen tongue or throat.
If not treated immediately, it can lead to death.
Allergic reactions to the Pfizer injection were first observed in the UK when two National Health Service (NHS) staff with a history of severe allergies developed reactions after being immunized last month.
One of the workers, a 49-year-old woman, had a history of egg allergies and the other, a 40-year-old woman, had a history of drug allergies.
Both wore devices containing epinephrine in case they had reactions.
A third patient also had a ‘possible allergic reaction’, but the UK authorities did not describe this and did not provide an update on the patient.
Pfizer says the jab isn’t made with egg ingredients.
Following the responses, the UK Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) warned that anyone with severe allergic reactions to food or medicines would not receive the vaccine.
About 32 million Americans have food allergies, according to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. It is not known how many have drug allergies.
In the US, it is recommended that those without anaphylaxis or immediate allergic reactions be observed for 15 minutes and those with such a history for 30 minutes.
“If you are allergic to compounds in the vaccine or closely related compounds, we recommend that you do not get vaccinated at this time,” said Dr. Thomas Clark, chief of epidemiology for the CDC’s Division of Meningitis and Vaccine Preventable Diseases. during the call with reporters.
Data from clinical trials also showed that four people who received the vaccine were diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy, a type of facial paralysis.
However, research scientists said there was no evidence that the prick causing the condition was comparable to the Bell’s Palsy rate in the general population.
Among the non-serious unsolicited adverse reactions, there was a numerical imbalance of four cases of Bell palsy in the vaccine group compared to no cases in the placebo group, although the four cases in the vaccine group do not represent a frequency higher than expected in the overall population, ”read the analysis.
In its report on Pfizer, the CDC said it plans to study the reported side effects after obtaining the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and release an analysis in the coming weeks.