People with certain underlying conditions can receive a COVID-19 vaccine as long as they haven’t had a serious allergic reaction to any of the vaccine’s ingredients, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in recently released guidelines.
“Adults of any age with certain underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for serious illness from the virus that causes COVID-19,” the agency noted in recommendations posted Saturday.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, 338,656 people have died from COVID-19 in the US since Wednesday and 19.5 million people have been infected. Worldwide, 1,792,786 have died of the virus and more than 82 million people have tested positive; for the most part this is not the case for those who are asymptomatic.
People with weakened immune systems, including some people with HIV, may be at increased risk for a serious case of COVID-19 and may receive a vaccine, the CDC said.
But they have to account for limitations in the vaccine safety data, the agency added, which is not yet available for those groups. Although clinical studies have included people with HIV, safety information specific to that population is also not yet available.
People living with autoimmune diseases can receive an mRNA coronavirus vaccine, according to the CDC, but they, too, should note that such safety data is not available.
Those who have previously had Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS), a rare but potentially serious autoimmune disease, can also receive the vaccine. “With few exceptions, the general immunization guidelines of the Independent Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) do not include a history of GBS as a precautionary measure in vaccination with other vaccines,” the agency said.
People who have previously had Bell’s palsy, which is usually temporary weakness or paralysis of the face, can also receive the vaccine. While COVID-19 vaccine trials include a few reports of Bell’s palsy, the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t consider it higher than expected in the general population, and has not concluded that vaccination caused those cases, the CDC says. .
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People vaccinated against COVID-19 still need to follow current restrictive measures, such as masking, social distancing, and good hand hygiene, until experts better understand how well the vaccines protect people in real life, the CDC says.
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The new guideline came weeks after the FDA granted emergency use approval, a less stringent approval than full FDA approval used to accelerate the use of COVID-19 treatments and vaccines for Pfizer PFE vaccine candidates,
-BioNTech BNTX,
and Moderna MRNA,
Both vaccines require two doses and use mRNA technology, which teaches the body’s cells to make proteins that generate an immune response.
Fact sheets for the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines provide a complete list of their ingredients.
As of Monday morning, 2.1 million people in the US had received their first vaccine doses and 11.4 million doses had been distributed, according to a CDC count.
Public health authorities have recommended that health professionals and residents of long-term care facilities be first in line for vaccination. The following are key primary care workers and adults aged 75 and older, followed by adults aged 65 to 74, people aged 16 to 64 with high-risk medical conditions, and key workers not previously included, according to the recommendations of the CDC.
The average person in the U.S. who doesn’t fall into a high-priority category will likely be able to get vaccinated in the spring or summer, experts say.
The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine showed 95% efficacy in clinical studies, while the Moderna vaccine was approximately 94% effective. But people vaccinated against COVID-19 still need to apply current mitigating measures such as masking, social distancing, and good hand hygiene until experts better understand how well the vaccines protect people in real life, the CDC says.
While vaccine news sheds some light on what has been a dark year for millions of people, the US recorded an average of 183,140 daily COVID-19 cases in the past week, according to a New York Times tracker; On Monday, at least 1,899 people died from the disease. Current hospital admissions hit a record high of 121,235 on Monday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.