As COVID-19 vaccination efforts stop across the United States, the country’s health officials confirm that severe allergic reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine are rare.
In a study released on January 6 by the US Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), researchers found that the risk of anaphylaxis – a serious, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction – from the vaccine was extremely low. . Based on data from people who received the first of the two recommended doses, on average, only one in every 90,000 people will experience this adverse reaction. This is less than 3 percent of the lifetime risk of dying from food asphyxiation.
Technically, the risk of severe allergic reactions of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is about 8.5 times higher than the risk of the seasonal flu vaccine, which has a percentage of about 769,000. But experts point out that it is still a small number: according to the study, 1.89 million people in the US received the first dose of vaccine between December 14 and December 23, and more than 99,998 percent of them did not experience anaphylaxis.
The news should help people who are worried about getting the vaccine. According to a National GeographicOn Sunday in a Morning Consult poll conducted in December, seven out of ten Americans say they are wary of the possible side effects of any COVID-19 vaccine, while 58 percent of respondents say they will be vaccinated, but first until they saw how the shot affected other people.
Overall, however, the data show that the risk of anaphylaxis is much smaller than the negative outcomes associated with COVID-19 infections, especially among older Americans. By October 2020, the disease had become one of the leading causes of death in the US among people over the age of 45, surpassing car crashes, suicides, homicides and accidental drugs. To date, the pandemic has killed more than one in every 1,000 Americans.
“I and my colleagues at CDC and FDA are committed to ensuring that COVID-19 vaccines are safe,” said Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, in a Wednesday press release on the study said. “I know I’m looking forward to the day I roll up my sleeves and get vaccinated.”
What do we know about the cases of anaphylaxis?
Of the 21 cases of severe anaphylaxis associated with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, 19 occurred in women, and half were in people between 40 and 60 years old. (The other half were between 27 and 40 years old.) Seventeen of the cases were in people with a history of allergic reactions to food, medication, other types of vaccines, or bee and wasps. Seven had a history of anaphylaxis.
In 18 of the 21 documented cases, patients started showing symptoms of anaphylaxis within 30 minutes of receiving the dose. Almost all were treated immediately with epinephrine, a common treatment for anaphylaxis and the active ingredient in an Epi-Pen. Only four patients required hospitalization. At least 20 of the 21 patients fully recovered by December 23 or were then discharged from the hospital.
There is no geographical grouping of the cases, and they can be traced back to different parts of the vaccine, so there is no evidence that infection of the vaccine was a problem. Investigation into the cases is still early, and the skewed treatment of women may be a true biological phenomenon, or may reflect the fact that more women than men – 62 per cent of the 1.89 million – received the vaccine during the study period.
Is there a clear difference in the risk between the vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna?
At the moment there are none. According to raw totals, more cases arose from the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine than the Moderna vaccine, but CDC officials say this is probably because the Pfizer-BioNTech version was first approved and therefore given to more people during the study period. .
A total of 1,893,360 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were administered during the study period, which is approximately 8.5 times more than the 224,322 doses of Moderna given over the same team. What’s more, the deployment of the Moderna vaccine only started on December 21 during the last three days of the study period. Of the Moderna doses, the CDC has been notified of just one case of anaphylaxis and is awaiting more data.
Should I get the vaccine?
In the briefing, Messonnier and Tom Clark, leader of the CDC’s vaccine evaluation team, stressed that in general, if people are advised to get the vaccine, they should get it.
To ensure a rapid response in the event of a rare allergic reaction, people should be observed for 15 minutes after receiving the vaccine. People with a history of anaphylaxis or immediate allergic reactions will need to be monitored for 30 minutes.
Clark set out two specific examples of people who should not receive the full two-dose Pfizer BioNTech vaccine treatment: ‘If you respond immediately to your first [COVID-19 vaccine] dose, do not get a second, and if you have a known allergy to ingredients in the vaccine, or many closely related compounds, we recommend that you are not currently vaccinated. People who are not sure if they are allergic to a vaccine ingredient should talk to their doctors before vaccination.
The CDC specifically warns that COVID-19 vaccines that use messenger RNA (mRNA) – including the Pfizer BioNTech and Modern vaccines – also contain polyethylene glycol to protect the mRNA, so that people with allergies to the compound should not get the vaccine. not. People who are allergic to polysorbate – which chemically resembles polyethylene glycol – should not be given the chance at this time.
In general, the CDC recommends that people with allergy concerns consult their healthcare providers.
“There’s a big difference between someone who had a mild allergic reaction in their childhood, and someone who had a severe allergic reaction last week,” Messionner said. “It’s going to be really important for a clinician to help a patient make a judgment.”