An employee used a needle and an ampoule containing the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to prepare a dose at a vaccination health center in Cardiff, South Wales, on December 8, 2020. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP via Getty Images)
TO Newsroom
UPDATE 12:10 PM PT – Sunday January 24, 2021
A California resident who tested positive for COVID-19 in December died after receiving a vaccine. The person reportedly died in Placer County, California on Thursday just hours after he received the coronavirus vaccine.
They reportedly contracted the virus in December, and despite a CDC recommendation not to be vaccinated within 90 days of a positive test, they received the vaccine.
While it’s unclear which COVID-19 vaccine the patient received, health officials said people shouldn’t be too quick to blame the vaccine for death.
“We know that the severe allergic reactions that occur after immunization, the vast majority of which occur 15-30 minutes after immunization, so something that occurred a few hours later is probably not the serious allergic reaction, anaphylaxis, that we’re concerned about,” says Dr. Dean Blumberg said, an infectious disease expert at UC Davis Children’s Hospital.
New @CDCMMWR describes a small number of reports of serious allergic reactions after people received the Moderna #COVID-19 vaccine. Providers administering COVID-19 vaccines must screen recipients and have supplies and personnel ready to manage these responses. https://t.co/jm4TOHGwEP pic.twitter.com/gQbuxV3eJc
– CDC (@CDCgov) January 22, 2021
Authorities said multiple agencies are investigating the death.