The death of a person last week in Placer County raised questions about a possible connection to a COVID-19 vaccine, and several agencies are investigating the fatality.
Officials from the Placer County public health department and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement that the person, who died on Thursday, had tested positive for coronavirus in late December and had received the vaccine several hours before I die.
Placer County Public Health did not administer the vaccine and did not clarify in the statement whether the person had received the Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
“Any reports of the cause of death are premature, pending the outcome of the investigation,” said the sheriff’s office on his Facebook page. “Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased.”
Public health officials in Placer County refused to answer questions on Tuesday.
“We are unable to provide additional information pending the outcome of the investigation, which includes state and federal partners,” wrote spokesman Chris Gray-Garcia by email.
The sheriff’s office statement, which was posted on social media on Saturday, drew nearly 3,000 comments, most criticizing the agency for fueling the fear. Others praised the authorities for reporting the incident.
The sheriff’s officials defended the message in several comments, saying in one: “We are always transparent with the public and share factual information in a timely manner. We cannot control how it is rotated / interpreted. “
The Food and Drug Administration has approved both Pfizer and Modern vaccines for emergency use after a well-established evaluation procedure for vaccine safety. No deaths were associated with any vaccine.
Cases of anaphylaxis, a severe allergic reaction to injections that can be fatal, have been extremely rare, according to a report by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
During the first three weeks of the Modern vaccine launch in the United States, there were 2.5 cases of anaphylaxis for every 1 million doses of Modern Vaccine. A similar analysis of the vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech found there was 11.1 cases of anaphylaxis for every 1 million doses during the first 10 days of administration.
California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the details of the Placer County case were “complex” and “deserve further investigation.”
At a briefing on Monday, he said it was important to publicly share the lessons learned from the Placer County case and other reactions in vaccine containers across the country. Ghaly reiterated the safety of both vaccines in use in the United States, which won endorsement by the Western States’ scientific safety committee.
“These are safe vaccines [and] we are seeing them successfully managed across the state, across the country, across the world, ”said Ghaly. “We are looking at this very closely and we are still behind the overwhelming data and evidence that these vaccines are safe.”