Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg
Photographer: Eric Lee / Bloomberg
About 1 in 100,000 people have had a severe allergic reaction to the first Covid-19 vaccine, a higher rate than the flu vaccine, but that is still quite uncommon, U.S. health officials said.
A study published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention described 21 cases of anaphylaxis among the top 1.9 million recipients of disease. The Pfizer Inc. vaccine, a rate of 11.1 per million doses administered. The CDC did not report deaths from anaphylaxis.
The CDC said it has seen reactions from recipients Moderna Inc. also shot, with 29 confirmed cases of anaphylaxis to date between the two vaccines. However, the CDC follows its recommendation that most people continue to receive the vaccines, saying the risks surrounding the vaccine are less than the risk of a severe case of Covid-19.
“Even with 11 cases per million doses administered it is a very safe vaccine,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Vaccination and Respiratory Diseases. “I continue to believe that the risk of Covid and the risk of poor outcomes, especially in the elderly, makes it imperative that people go ahead and get vaccinated as soon as it is available.”
The only exceptions the CDC has exposed are people with a known allergy to vaccine ingredients and people who had a reaction to the first dose of a Covid vaccine.
However, Messonnier stressed that those with a history of allergic reactions to drugs and severe allergic reactions to any cause should be observed for half an hour after the shootings and providers should be prepared with treatments for allergic reactions such as EpiPen
Regulators are closely monitoring the safety of Covid-19 vaccines as they develop, he added, noting that “we do not see any worrying signs. The only thing we have seen is these serious allergic reactions.”
Set pattern
Severe allergic reactions to vaccines are an established, albeit uncommon, phenomenon. They occur approximately 1.3 times per million doses of flu vaccine administered, and with other vaccines have been seen at rates of 12 to 25 per million doses, although studies were small.
Many safety issues after vaccination are also coincidental, Messonnier pointed out, saying, “the vaccine is not always the cause.”
The severe allergic reactions observed with the first vaccines against Covid-19 have not significantly affected distribution plans, Messonnier said.
Of the patients who had severe allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine, four had to be hospitalized and the rest were treated in the emergency room. CDC officials said the 20 patients had information about recovery.
“It simply came to our notice then. It’s reversible and treatable, ”Anthony Fauci, the government’s chief infectious disease doctor, said during an online event at the Washington DC Economic Club.