A middle-aged doctor in Florida passed away two weeks after receiving his first dose of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, succumbing to a rare blood disorder. The CDC and local authorities have opened an investigation into his death.
Dr. Gregory Michael – a 56-year-old obstetrician-gynecologist who ran his own practice at Miami Beach’s Mount Sinai Medical Center for more than a decade – died late last week, 16 days after taking the jointly developed vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Local health officials said on Friday that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Florida Department of Health and the Miami-Dade coroner’s office were investigating the exact cause of Michael’s death, which was linked to a rare condition that affects the body’s ability to clot blood.
“The cause of death is pending completion of studies by the medical examiner and the Centers for Disease Control,” said the office’s director, Darren Caprara, in an email to the media. He added that while an autopsy was performed on Tuesday, “The case is still under investigation, so nothing has been finalized” and that a connection to the vaccine had not been ruled out.
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A CDC representative told a local media separately that the agency “Assess the situation as more information becomes available and provide timely updates on what is known and any necessary actions”
The doctor said he was in good health before his death on Sunday, with his wife describing him as “very healthy” in a Facebook post, while his own website noted that he was an avid fisherman and a certified diver.
Pfizer, however, said it was “Actively investigating the case”, recognizing that Michael died of a “Highly unusual clinical case of severe thrombocytopenia,” the blood clotting condition, but noted that he does not believe “There is no direct connection to the vaccine.”
There have been no related safety signs identified in trials or vaccinations so far.
Although the Pfizer / BioNTech jab has overcome safety and efficacy barriers in several countries and secured official authorization, sometimes under emergency use provisions, immunization has been linked to alarming reports of adverse reactions in the past few weeks, such as two houses residents in Norway who died within days of taking their first dose. As with Michael, officials are still investigating whether the deaths are related to the vaccine. Meanwhile, in Portugal, authorities have rejected reports that a similar sudden death of a “perfectly healthy” doctor was somehow linked to her taking it.
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