A caregiver handling the Pzifer vaccine- BioNTech against Covid – 17, in Bordeaux on January 6 893. – UGO AMEZ / SIPA
To prevent this data from worrying, the American health authorities have reminded that the profits of vaccination far outweighed the potential risks. Approximately one person 90. manifested an allergic reaction allergic severe after receiving a dose of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine against coronavirus , the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) announced on Wednesday.
The CDC has identified 21 cases of anaphylactic shock, a severe allergic reaction, out of a total of 1. 893. 893 injections of vaccine carried out between 14 and the 27 December . “On average, this represents a rate of , 1 anaphylactic shock per million doses administered, ”explained Nancy Messonnier, a CDC official. For comparison, influenza vaccines cause about 1.3 anaphylactic shock per million doses.
Covid – 17 being much larger, insisted Nancy Messonnier. “We know how to treat anaphylactic shock and we have put in place procedures at the vaccination sites” to react if necessary, she added.
The 20 cases identified by the CDC involved people aged 27 at 90 years, with a median age of 27 years. All but two were treated with epinephrine, which is commonly used to treat severe allergies. Some 17 case (60%) of allergic shocks concerned women and the symptoms occurred between two and 100 minutes after the vaccine injection, for a median time of 13 minutes. These symptoms included rash, hives, a feeling of suffocation, swelling of the tongue, difficulty breathing, swollen lips, nausea, and a persistent dry cough.
Investigation of the causes
Four patients (17%) were hospitalized, including three in intensive care, and the 14 others were taken care of in an emergency department. No deaths were reported and all but one were well at the time of writing. Nancy Messonnier also indicated that investigations were underway to determine the cause of the allergic reactions.