The Oregon Health Authority is recommending the use of nearly 27,000 doses of the modern coronavirus vaccine, despite reports in Oregon and California of a small number of adverse reactions among people inoculated from the same batch of vaccine.
State officials said on Wednesday that they are following the guidelines received from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which “do not recommend that health departments stop administering this batch or any batch of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.”
State officials did not say when they received this guidance from the CDC on the vaccine batch 041L20A from Moderna, a batch of about one million doses distributed across the country.
On Sunday, California suspended inoculations from that batch for “extreme abundance of caution,” after less than 10 people “appeared to be having a possible serious allergic reaction” at the same vaccination clinic.
Oregon is investigating two adverse reactions among vaccinated people from the same batch.
Oregon received 57,400 doses of that batch at 118 locations, according to state officials. On Wednesday, 26,567 remained locally.
“Adverse reactions to vaccines are extremely rare, but we are paying close attention when they occur,” said Dr. Dean Sidelinger, state health officer and epidemiologist, in a statement. “At the moment, there is no evidence that these events have been linked to any other vaccine location and I encourage all eligible Oregon citizens to get a vaccine as soon as the vaccine is available to you.
On Tuesday, Oregon said it administered 225,066 doses of the modern coronavirus vaccine or Pfizer.
State officials did not immediately respond to questions about the two adverse reactions reported for Oregon residents vaccinated with the Moderna lot now under scrutiny. Nor did the authorities immediately say how often adverse reactions are reported with the vaccine.
But a federal database updated last Friday lists 51 events in Oregon linked to the Modern coronavirus vaccine. This includes six reports of headache and two reports of difficulty breathing, nausea, abnormal sensations, sore throat, pain or tremor.
Oregon recorded 246 adverse events linked to the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, according to the federal database.
State officials on Wednesday encouraged vaccine administrators to disclose batch numbers in response to patients’ questions and reiterated their expectation to monitor patients for 15 to 30 minutes after administering the coronavirus vaccine.
– Brad Schmidt; [email protected]; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt