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Covid vaccine reaction

#1
Syne Offline

A health care worker at the Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau, Alaska, developed a severe allergic reaction shortly after receiving the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine Tuesday evening, and had to be hospitalized overnight.

During a media briefing Wednesday, health officials said the middle-aged woman had no history of allergies and had never experienced anaphylaxis, a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction.

...The woman starting feeling flushed about 10 minutes into that observation period, and took Benadryl, an antihistamine.

However, her symptoms progressed to an elevated heart rate and shortness of breath, and was sent to the hospital's emergency department.

"She had a red, flushed rash over her face and torso," Dr. Lindy Jones, the emergency physician who treated her, said during the briefing Wednesday. "I was concerned about an anaphylactic reaction." Jones gave her an emergency injection of epinephrine.

Her symptoms abated for a short time, but then re-emerged. She was put on intravenous epinephrine, and moved to the hospital's intensive care unit where she remained overnight.
...
Two health care workers in the United Kingdom experienced similar allergic reactions after receiving the Pfizer vaccine last week.
...
Allergic reactions to vaccines or other medications are rare, but do occur. Any facility qualified to administer vaccines is equipped with emergency epinephrine (known to many as an EpiPen) in the event of severe reactions.
...
Butler said the woman will be advised to skip the second dose.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-ne...d-n1251448


Anaphylaxis is deadly without immediate emergency medical treatment. And the fact that they had to resort to an epinephrine drip shows that EpiPens alone are not sufficient. And this was a woman with no history of allergic reactions.

IOW, CVS, Walmart, etc. will not be offering it any time soon, as there is a risk.
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#2
Yazata Offline
Maybe...

Most prescription drugs have risks, which is why they are prescription drugs.

I think that a lot will depend on how prevalent this is.
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#3
Zinjanthropos Offline
If vax rated at 94% why would somebody having an adverse reaction be news?
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#4
C C Offline
(Dec 17, 2020 07:39 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: If vax rated at 94% why would somebody having an adverse reaction be news?


Polyethylene glycol is arguably prevalent enough that it's hard to believe someone (other than possibly Amish, plain people, etc) would not have been exposed to it before and thus be aware of their life-threatening allergic reaction.

• The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine should be administered in a health care setting where anaphylaxis can be treated.

• All individuals must be observed for at least 20-30 minutes after injection to monitor for any adverse reaction. All anaphylactic reactions should be managed immediately, with epinephrine as the first line treatment.

• The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine should not be administered to individuals with a known history of a severe allergic reaction to polyethylene glycol as it is a component of this vaccine that is known to cause anaphylaxis.


(SOURCE: American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology Releases Guidance on Risk of Allergic Reactions to the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine)


Are strong reactions to COVID-19 vaccine actually a good thing? Doctors explain
https://abc7news.com/covid-19-vaccine-re...f/8805958/

EXCERPTS: [...] Dr. Lee also sits on California's Scientific Safety Review committee for vaccines. She addressed concerns about the two patients in the UK who had anaphylactic symptoms after they received the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 8. Both had a history of allergic reactions. "It may be for whatever reason that they had an allergy to a component of the vaccine. I wouldn't expect that this vaccine would be more allergic or cause more anaphylaxis than any other vaccine at this time."

When asked how quickly someone might have an allergic reaction to a vaccine, Dr. Lee said, "typically it will happen within a few hours if there is an immediate anaphylactic reaction."

The body's immune response takes time to build up after vaccine injections, so doctors say it's critical people continue to practice social distancing and wear masks.

[...] Pfizer's analysis indicates that about 25% to 50% of patients experienced some degree of side effects, while 10% to 15% had a more serious reaction. "I had chills, nausea, a headache, some fatigue, and that just kind of got worse and worse as the night went on," said Kristen Choi, a nursing professor at UCLA. [...] "At that point, I suspected that I probably got the active vaccine rather than the placebo, although I don't know for sure. And I took some Tylenol and the fever started to come down pretty quickly."

Choi's reaction is considered more serious and rare, but is exactly why hospitals plan to stagger vaccines doses among staff, so not everyone feels lousy on the same day. "I was definitely in bed and that wouldn't have been a day I could have gone to work, I felt pretty sick."

East Bay residents, Dan Horowitz and Dr. Judson Brandeis, also participated in phase 3 Pfizer trials and had very mild to moderate reactions. [...] "I had a little discomfort in my shoulder for two or three days," said Dr. Brandeis. "Other than that, it was really a no-brainer. I was totally fine."

"Maybe a little bit of achiness in my arms, just feeling a little bit funny, but nothing that frightened me," said Horowitz. "It said to me, 'were going to get through this.'"

The younger you are, the more likely you are to have side effects because your immune system is strong and responding to the vaccine, which is likely why Choi, who is 28, had a more intense reaction than Horowitz, who is 65. "These vaccines are very immunogenic, meaning they stimulate a strong immune response, and so the likelihood is that if you're having symptoms after a vaccine, that your body's responding incredibly well to the vaccine," said Dr. Grace Lee, a pediatric infectious disease physician at Stanford.


FDA scientists endorse Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, as documents provide new hints on efficacy
https://www.statnews.com/2020/12/15/fda-...-efficacy/

EXCERPT: The FDA reviewers said that the two-dose vaccine “was highly effective” in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 from occurring “at least 14 days after the receipt of the second dose.”

Vaccine-related side effects, such as aches and pains, appeared more severe than with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, though such comparisons should be made with caution and are in no way expected to slow the clearance of the vaccine or present major concerns. There was also preliminary evidence that the vaccine has some efficacy after one dose, and that it prevents asymptomatic Covid-19 cases — those that occur without a person ever feeling ill.

Moderna disclosed Nov. 30 that its vaccine decreased symptomatic Covid-19 infections by 94% in clinical trials, while also preventing more severe forms of the disease. But the release of FDA documents provides the most complete look yet at what is likely to be the second Covid-19 vaccine cleared for emergency use against the disease.

RELATED: https://www.scivillage.com/thread-9526-p...l#pid40550


Covid-19 vaccine side effects, explained
https://www.vox.com/22158238/covid-19-va...-explained

EXCERPTS: What’s now clear: An injection with either vaccine [Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech], both of which use mRNA technology, can feel more intense than other routine vaccinations (such as the flu shot) — with side effects for some recipients such as pain, headache, and fatigue. And this may be especially true for Moderna’s vaccine: About 16 percent of people who got the shot in clinical trials experienced a “severe” adverse reaction, a classification the FDA uses to refer to side effects that require medical attention and prevent people from going about their daily activities.

[...] The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine caused mild or moderate reactions in most people, and severe reactions were rare. Moderna didn’t share the details of its vaccine trial’s mild and moderate side effects, but the FDA said mild and moderate is how they’d characterize the bulk of them. A key difference with the Moderna vaccine, however, is that we know severe reactions were more common in the trials.

[...] In general, side effects popped up more after the second dose than the first. They also happened less frequently in people 55 and younger, the FDA said.

[...] Now let’s look at the FDA’s Moderna data. Again, the company didn’t share the details of their mild and moderate adverse events — and revealed fewer details than Pfizer/BioNTech generally. But we know the most common reactions were injection site pain, fatigue, headache, muscle pain, joint pain, and chills.

Though the FDA said these were mostly mild and moderate, we only have the specific figures for total events and the more severe reactions. For example, 83 percent of study participants experienced a systemic adverse reaction of any level of severity while 15.7 percent experienced a severe “systemic” adverse reaction. Depending on the type, these severe events ranged in frequency from 0.2 to 9.7 percent, with chills being less common and fatigue the most common.

Like the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, side effects were more frequent after the second dose and less common overall in adults 65 and older. Side effects that required hospitalization or emergency room visit were extremely rare. According to FDA analysis, “Across groups and doses, <0.1% reported a Grade 4 systemic reaction.” You can see that below, in a chart focusing on safety data in the younger adults in the study.

So what can we take away from all this? “We know neither of these vaccines carries a high risk of serious adverse events. And we can expect them to cause typical reactions to vaccines,” said Bastian. But there are important differences. At least in these trials, all side effects and especially severe side effects were more common with the Moderna vaccine.

“The overall picture is that almost everyone has systemic adverse events with Moderna’s vaccine, and we don’t know how often they were only mild,” Bastian said. “For Pfizer/BioNTech, most people had at least mild reactions, but moderate reactions were common too.” So, at least for now, it seems reactions to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine “are considerably less severe.”

[...] Even with all the available data, there are still unknowns about the two vaccines. We may not see additional rare side effects or severe reactions that will emerge until millions of people get them, for example.

Bell’s palsy, a form of temporary facial paralysis, showed up in three people who got the Moderna vaccine and four people who got the Pfizer/BioNTech shot in the companies’ late-stage trials. It’s not yet clear whether these cases are actually linked with the vaccines — since Bell’s palsy can occur in the general population irrespective of vaccination — but because “we see a similar imbalance in two different studies, it pricks my ears up a bit,” Goodman said, and it’s something we’ll learn more about as the vaccines are rolled out.

There are also groups the vaccines weren’t tested in, like pregnant women and people with HIV. In the cases of anaphylaxis in the UK following vaccination with the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, two people with a history of severe allergies — the kind that force them to carry around EpiPen-type devices — had a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, were treated, and recovered. Allergic reactions were very rare in the Pfizer/BioNTech trial (affecting only 0.63 of people who got the vaccine, according to the FDA’s analysis). And people with severe allergies were also excluded from the study.

[...] The CDC is now advising that people with a history of severe allergic reactions to vaccines can still get the Pfizer/BioNTech shot but should be counseled about the risks and be monitored for 30 minutes afterward, while those with an allergy to a specific vaccine ingredient shouldn’t get the shot.

But, again, there’s some reassurance to be taken here: Severe allergic reactions to vaccines are extremely rare generally. Most serious vaccine reactions — such as the rare neurological disorder Guillain-Barré syndrome — tend to happen within six weeks of getting immunized, said Colleen Kelley, associate professor of medicine at Emory University, who is also a principal investigator in the Moderna trial. And we already have more than six weeks of data on safety and side effects in the two shots.

“People worry about late or long-term side effects occurring a year or two later — that’s not really a thing with vaccination,” Kelley said.
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#5
Syne Offline
(Dec 17, 2020 07:36 PM)Yazata Wrote: Maybe...

Most prescription drugs have risks, which is why they are prescription drugs.

I think that a lot will depend on how prevalent this is.
Most prescriptions don't have the possibility of immediately life threatening reactions.


(Dec 17, 2020 07:39 PM)Zinjanthropos Wrote: If vax rated at 94% why would somebody having an adverse reaction be news?
94% is just how effective it is. That doesn't tell us anything about possible adverse reactions.
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#6
Syne Offline

2 Alaska health care workers have allergic reactions after taking Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine

A second health care worker, a male, suffered a less-serious allergic reaction to the vaccine at the same hospital on Wednesday. Ten minutes after getting the injection, the man experienced "eye puffiness, lightheadedness, and scratchy throat," Bartlett hospital said in a statement. "His reaction was not considered anaphylaxis."

"He felt completely back to normal within an hour and was released," after treatment in the emergency department with epinephrine, Pepcid and Benadryl...

The hospital said 144 staff members were vaccinated Wednesday...
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alaska-covi...re-worker/


So 2 out of 144. Granted, the second one doesn't sound life threatening...as long as an EpiPen and/or Benadryl is handy. Just another data point.
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#8
confused2 Offline
More fainting on camera can be found on Youtube. I have to (reluctantly) admit she wipes the floor with the rest on Youtube.
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#9
Yazata Offline
The first shipments of vaccine (I don't know which one) have arrived at hospitals around here. But it still isn't available to the general public, even the elderly. The only people currently getting it are what are termed "front line" health care workers. (The doctors are the ones who created the priority list and were careful to put themselves on top.)

Regarding the safety of the vaccine, that's somewhat reassuring. If the physicians were skeptical about its safety, they wouldn't be in such a hurry to receive it themselves.

Reportedly once the health care workers have taken care of themselves, it will be administered to nursing home residents. I'm not sure what the priority list looks like after that. Presumably next in line would be healthy elderly people and younger people with the kind of preexisting conditions that might make covid more deadly.

I'll be watching to see what happens, but right now I wouldn't hesitate to receive it whenever it eventually becomes available to people like me.
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#10
Syne Offline
My opinion of Covid has never changed. Seeing as I've never had the flu, I trust my own immune system.
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