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As of December 27, the Pfizer and Biontech coronavirus vaccine will be administered in Germany. EU approval of the vaccine by the pharmaceutical company Moderna is due to arrive in early January. In the US, more than 1.1 million people have been vaccinated with the two drugs.
Reports of allergic reactions are circulating and many rumors circulate on the Internet. But what are the facts?
The U.S. Vaccine Findings
The good news: allergic reactions are extremely rare!
However, the symptoms are varied. Sweating, shortness of breath, dizziness, swelling, itching, all of these can indicate anaphylactic shock.
Federal agencies in the US are currently investigating just seven cases in which people had a severe allergic reaction after the corona vaccination. It means: Only about 0.0007 percent of those vaccinated so far have reacted strongly to allergies in the US.
► Six of these US patients had received the Pfizer Biontech vaccine. According to officials from the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in none of these cases has an ingredient in the vaccine been shown to cause the allergic reactions. And: it could help the seven people who had an allergic reaction.
► One of the cases occurred after a Boston doctor received the Moderna vaccine on Thursday. The doctor complained that he had a severe reaction almost immediately after the vaccination, he felt dizzy, his heart was racing. Then the blood pressure dropped. The Man Named Dr. According to the New York Times, Hossein Sadrzadeh has a severe allergy to shellfish. Whether this is related to allergic shock is now being investigated.
In any case, the man was taken to the emergency room, examined, treated, observed, and discharged after four hours. He is fine today.
To be safe, the CDC recommends that vaccinated individuals who have had allergies in the past stay at the vaccination site for 15 minutes after injecting the corona vaccine. Starting next week, the authority also wants to officially report reactions to vaccines on its website.
In general, allergic reactions to vaccines are believed to occur at a rate of approximately one in a million, regardless of the vaccine.
For both corona vaccines, two doses of vaccination per person are required every few weeks. People who have severe allergic reactions to the vaccine will not receive a second dose initially.
What’s up with that PEG?
Both Pfizer-Biontech and Moderna are mRNA vaccines that are injected into the upper arm.
As soon as the mRNA, also known as messenger RNA, is in human cells, it stimulates the production of a protein called spike. This teaches the immune system to recognize and fight the coronavirus should it enter the body.
Both vaccines also contain a handful of other ingredients that wrap the fragile mRNA in a protective, greasy bubble and help keep the formulation stable during shipping.
But: NONE of the ingredients is currently considered an allergen. However, some experts have pointed to polyethylene glycol (PEG), which is found in both formulations, albeit in a slightly different form. Is the PEG the culprit?
The substance is found in many pharmaceutical products, including laxatives and steroids. Whether there is a connection to the few allergic reactions has not yet been investigated in the US.
These are the known side effects.
Tens of thousands of people participated in the Moderna, Biontech and Pfizer studies before the EU approved the vaccines.
For BNT162b2, the substance Pfizer Biontech, the most common side effects were:
• pain at the injection site (more than 80%)
• tiredness (more than 60%)
• headache (more than 50%)
• muscle pain (more than 30%)
• chills (more than 30%)
• joint pain (more than 20%)
• fever (more than 10%)
However, the side effects were generally mild or moderate in intensity and resolved within a few days, depending on the package insert.
The known side effects of the Moderna vaccine are: tiredness, redness and pain at the injection site, as well as headache and pain in the extremities. Some participants showed flu-like symptoms, apparently no different from other vaccines.
In addition to the few allergic reactions in the United States, two cases are also known from Great Britain. Investigations there have not yet been completed either. However, it is assumed that the PEG vaccine component was the trigger for anaphylactic shock.
Both men who reacted strongly had a long history of allergies. The MHRA, the UK drug agency, recommended against vaccinating people with severe allergies.
“Sleeves up” is the name of the vaccine campaign in Germany
However, the Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn encourages Germans to get vaccinated. The injections are a “decisive key to victory over the crown pandemic,” said the CDU politician. Title of the German vaccination campaign: “Sleeves up”.
Unlike in the United States, where Vice President Mike Pence and future President Joe Biden were first shoved in front of the cameras, this country’s politicians are waiting for vaccination.
Spahn defended this decision on Saturday. “We deliberately said that we should first start offering vaccines to the particularly vulnerable, the particularly vulnerable.”
But he added: “If it makes sense at any given time to build trust, each of us is ready to be vaccinated first.”
