A Boston doctor experienced a “severe” reaction just minutes after being inoculated with Moderna’s vaccine on Christmas Eve.
The New York Times reported that the reaction was the first of its kind to be associated with the Modern vaccine, which was launched in the United States last week.
What are the details?
Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh, a geriatric oncologist at Boston Medical Center, had a severe anaphylactic reaction immediately after receiving the injection of Moderna. Dr. Sadrzadeh told the Times that the allergic reaction was the same as he experienced with seafood.
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He said that a few minutes after the vaccine injection, at 3:30 pm, his heart rate reached 150 beats per minute, about twice the normal cadence; his tongue tingled and went numb. Before long, he was drenched in cold sweat and felt dizzy and passed out. His blood pressure also dropped, he said. His immune system, he realized, was in revolt.
“It was the same anaphylactic reaction that I experienced with seafood,” said Dr. Sadrzadeh. Dr. Sadrzadeh used his EpiPen and was taken on a stretcher to the emergency room, where he received various medications, including steroids and Benadryl, to calm the immune reactions that have taken over his body. A record of his visit stated that he had been “examined in the emergency room for breathlessness, dizziness, palpitations and numbness after receiving the Covid-19 vaccine”.
“He was taken to the Emergency Department, evaluated, treated, observed and released. He is fine today,” said David Kibbe, a spokesman for the Boston Medical Center, in a statement.
What is causing the reactions?
There have been numerous allergic reactions to coronavirus vaccines. The Food and Drug Administration said the week before Christmas that the authorities were investigating reactions that happened in several states to the Pfizer vaccine, which was launched a week before the Moderna vaccine.
Although experts are still unsure of what triggered the reactions, officials say the vaccines are safe.
Still, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued updated vaccine guidelines for Americans with a history of severe allergic reactions.
“If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction to any ingredient in a COVID-19 vaccine, the CDC recommends that you should not get that specific vaccine. If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction to other vaccines or injectable therapies, you should ask the your doctor if you should get the COVID-19 vaccine. Your doctor will help you decide if it is safe for you to be vaccinated, “says the new guide.
Meanwhile, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biological Research and Evaluation, identified polyethylene glycol as the potential “culprit” behind the reactions.
The ingredient is present in both the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine.
As of Sunday, more than 9.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been distributed in the United States and nearly 2 million Americans have been inoculated, according to CDC data.