The chief scientific adviser for Operation Warp Speed said on Wednesday that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine is causing more allergic reactions than typically seen from other vaccines.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui said that the last time he was updated on allergic reactions was on Tuesday, when there were six cases, CNN reported.
‘That frequency, as it stood yesterday, is superior to what one would expect with other vaccines,’ he said.
Dr. Slaoui did note that the data on coronavirus immunizations is lagging behind the actual numbers.
He added that there are discussions between the vaccine makers and the National Institutes of Health to consider running clinical trials of the vaccines in very allergic populations, ideally those who carry an EpiPen with them.
Doing the trial could help understand what’s provoking the allergic reactions, Dr. Slaoui said.
On Monday, a National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases official told CNBC that the United States is looking into why people have suffered severe allergic reactions after taking the COVID-19 vaccine.
A study is currently in the early planning phases and expected to include ‘several hundred’ people who have a history of severe allergic reactions, according to Alkis Togias, chief of NIAID’s Allergy, Asthma, and Airway Biology Branch.
His department will lead the study, which will hopefully begin in the coming weeks.
The study may look at vaccines made by Pfizer and Moderna, although the reactions have only been reported by people who got Pfizer’s shot.
A New York City healthcare worker became the sixth known person to suffer a ‘severe’ allergic reaction to a COVID-19 vaccine.
Two British healthcare workers went into anaphylactic shock when they received it in the first week of it being given out and three in Alaska also suffered similar reactions.
More than 30,000 COVID-19 vaccines have been given out in New York City and they are the only known persons to have had a reaction.
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