Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Wednesday that at least 21 people have suffered anaphylaxis after receiving a coronavirus vaccine.
Seventy-one percent of the instances of anaphylaxis occurred within 15 minutes of the patient receiving the vaccine. The CDC collected the data from Dec. 14-23, which meant that all of the cases occurred after patients received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration did not approve the Moderna vaccine until Dec. 18.
Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction that causes blood pressure to drop suddenly and airways to narrow, causing difficulty breathing. Symptoms also include skin rash and vomiting, and it can be life-threatening. Insect venoms, such as bee stings, are a common trigger, as are certain foods and medications.
Thus far, about 13% to 20% of patients who participated in the coronavirus vaccine trials experienced side effects, such as redness and swelling around the injection area, low-grade fevers, chills, and headaches.
Anaphylaxis occurs rarely after vaccination, and that appears to be the case with the coronavirus vaccine. The 21 cases that occurred were among 1,893,360 doses of the vaccine administered. That is a rate of 11.1 cases per 1 million doses.
The CDC recommends that locations administering the coronavirus vaccine have the necessary supplies needed to treat anaphylaxis and inject suspected cases with epinephrine.
