Scientists believe that the polyethylene glycol compound – known as PEG – is to blame for the allergic reactions reported to the coronavirus vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech, reports the Wall Street Journal.
Driving the news: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention identified six allergic reactions to the vaccine out of the 272,001 doses administered until December 19.
- No allergic reactions have been reported for the Modern vaccine, which also contains PEG. The Food and Drug Administration said it will monitor the vaccine’s launch “very closely,” according to the WSJ.
- The United Kingdom reported two serious reactions to the vaccine on 8 December.
What they are saying: “What we are learning now is that these allergic reactions may be a little more common than the highly unusual ones that we thought, because people are exposed to polyethylene glycol in various pharmaceutical preparations,” said Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Evaluation Center and Biological Research of Administration, by WSJ.
Worthless: “PEG has never been used before in an approved vaccine, but it is found in many drugs that occasionally trigger anaphylaxis,” the newspaper said. Science writes.
- However, scientists say that PEG-induced allergic reactions are uncommon and also suspect that people may have reacted to a different compound in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The end result: Scientists still argue that vaccination should continue despite suspicious reactions to PEG, although more data is needed.
- “We need to be vaccinated,” said Elizabeth Phillips, a drug hypersensitivity researcher at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Science. “We need to try to reduce this pandemic.”