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Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui / Bloomberg
Photographer: Eva Marie Uzcategui / Bloomberg
Like all new drugs, the Covid-19 vaccines that have been approved in Western countries have safety concerns and side effects. Many people who received the first two blows deployed, one of Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and another from Moderna Inc., had a fever, headache, and pain at the injection site. These side effects usually go away quickly. As many as 10 people have had a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis to the vaccines.
1. What is anaphylaxis?
The body fights foreign invaders through a variety of mechanisms that include making protective proteins called antibodies, releasing toxins that kill microbes, and mobilizing guardian cells to fight infection. As in any conflict, efforts to fend off infection can sometimes be damaging. In rare cases, it can produce inflammation and swelling of the tissues during a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. As much as 5% of people in the United States have had such a reaction to various substances. It can be fatal if, for example, a person’s airways swell, while deaths are rare. Allergies to insect bites and food can cause it, although most common cause of death from anaphylaxis in the US and UK
2. Where have Covid vaccines triggered cases?
December 19 The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention presentation referred to two cases of anaphylaxis associated with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the UK and six in the US. A health worker in Alaska who received a vaccine had to be hospitalized overnight. Later that month, in Israel, which is rolling out the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a man suffered anaphylactic shock an hour after receiving an injection, according to the Jerusalem Post. He said he had had previous reactions to penicillin, the newspaper reported. And a doctor in Boston with a shellfish allergy said he had a anaphylactic reaction to Moderna’s vaccine. None of the reactions resulted in death.
3. Has anaphylaxis ever been linked to vaccines?
Yes. A 2016 A study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology found 33 confirmed cases of vaccine-induced anaphylaxis occurring after 25,173,965 doses of inoculations, or a rate of approximately 1.31 per million doses. So far, the rate of known cases related to the administration of approximately 3 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines appear to be more than double, but still very low.
4. How long does the risk last?
Usually not long. Anaphylactic reactions normally occur within minutes to hours of exposure to a specific substance, said Michael Kinch, drug development expert and associate vice-chancellor at Washington University at St. Louis. Of the 29 cases where the lag was documented in the 2016 study, symptoms of anaphylaxis started within 30 minutes in eight cases, within 90 minutes in eight others, within two to four hours in 10 cases. , within four to eight hours in two cases, and the next day in one.
5. What do we do about the risk?
Great Britain and the United States has advised people who are allergic to any component of a Covid vaccine not to receive it. Anaphylaxis can be quickly countered with antihistamines and epinephrine injectors like Mylan NV’s Epi-Pen, which slow or stop immune reactions, and health workers administering the vaccine keep these items handy. These treatments do not negate the beneficial effects of vaccines. In the United States, health workers observe anyone who has received the vaccine for at least 15 minutes after the injection to watch for signs of a reaction. People who have had reactions to a first dose of vaccine should not receive a second, according to the CDC.
6. Do we know what in the plans is causing the reactions?
It’s not clear. The two main candidates are polyethylene glycol – a chemical found in many foods, cosmetics and drugs – and lipid nanoparticles that encapsulate messenger RNA, a genetic component of vaccines, according to Eric Topol, clinical trials expert and director of the Scripps Translational Research Institute. Polyethylene glycol has been previously linked to a handful of anaphylaxis cases. Once a cause has been reduced, it may be possible to make Covid vaccines even safer than they currently are, Topol said. If other serious non-allergic side effects do occur, he said, “they are also likely to be quite rare and the net benefit of vaccination extremely positive.”
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