A Boston doctor who used an EpiPen on his own after having the first known allergic reaction to Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine speaks out about his experience.
Within moments of receiving the first dose of the vaccine on Thursday, Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh from Boston Medical Center that his heart started pounding. At first he thought it was fear, he said, but then he felt his tongue and throat tingle and began to go numb.
“My blood pressure was really low, so this is the time I knew this was anaphylactic shock,” Sadrzadeh told NBC10 Boston and NECN. “My heart rate has gone up, I’m sweating so my blood pressure is really low. I’ve had this before, so I had my EpiPen and administered myself.”
Download our free mobile app for iOS or Android for the latest news and extensive coverage on COVID-19.
Sadrzadeh, who has a severe shellfish allergy, was taken to the emergency department after receiving the injection of the vaccine from the Cambridge-based company. Friday he felt normal again, he said.
Sadrzadeh is the first person with a known allergic reaction to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine, according to The New York Times. However, other vaccines now in use are also known to cause allergic reactions in rare cases. More than 35,000 people have received the vaccine in Massachusetts as of Tuesday, according to the state’s new dashboard.
Sadrzadeh hopes his story will raise awareness about the vaccine’s potential to cause anaphylaxis, both in pharmaceutical companies and anyone with a history of allergies.
“I think people should be vaccinated,” Sadrzadeh said. “At the same time, I really would like Moderna and also Pfizer to explore this more to keep things from happening.”
U.S. health officials say both Moderna’s and Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccines are safe, and medical experts agree that allergic reactions from vaccines are rare, but they can sometimes occur.
On Tuesday, thousands of additional doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine arrived in Massachusetts.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that, “If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction to any ingredient in a COVID-19 vaccine … you should not receive that particular vaccine. If you have a severe allergic reaction. have been on other vaccines or injectable therapies, ask your doctor if you should get a COVID-19 vaccine. Your doctor will help you decide if it is safe for you to get vaccinated. “
According to the CDC, just over 1 million people in the US had received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine as of Wednesday morning, according to the CDC, and only a handful of reactions to it qualified as anaphylaxis, a serious and potentially life-threatening allergic reaction.
British officials are investigating reports that two people who received the Pfizer vaccine had allergic reactions. Medical experts say that while reactions are rare, they are not unheard of for vaccines of any kind and are usually short-lived.
It’s unclear why some people experience allergic reactions after taking the shots. Fatigue, headaches, and muscle pain are the most common side effects of Moderna’s vaccine, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
A study led by a team from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases examines why some people have suffered severe allergic reactions, and there are expected to be hundreds of people with a history of severe allergic reactions.
Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine began arriving in Massachusetts on Tuesday, as part of a shipment of more than 116,000 doses. The delivery added to 59,475 doses of Pfizer distributed in the first week of arrival in the state. Of those, Boston Medical Center had received its first shipment of 75,000 doses of Moderna vaccine in addition to the 2,000 doses from Pfizer, which they have already begun to administer to staff and patients.