Serious allergic reactions to the approved coronavirus vaccines have been super rare in the U.S., well below 0.1%, federal health researchers found.
Only 2.5 cases of allergic reactions per 1 million vaccine doses (.00025%) were found with the Moderna COVID-19 shot, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday.
Health officials detected 10 cases of anaphylaxis, a potentially life-threatening allergic reaction, after 4 million first doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine were administered between Dec. 21 and Jan. 10. Most of the cases involved people with a history of allergic reactions.
The median age for those reactions was 47 years, with ages ranging from 31 to 63 years. The median amount of time it took from vaccine administration to symptom onset was 7.5 minutes. Nine patients began experiencing symptoms within 15 minutes and one after 30 minutes.
An earlier study found 11.1 cases of severe allergic reactions per 1 million doses (.00011%) of the Pfitzer-BioNTech vaccine.
“CDC and FDA will continue to monitor for adverse events, including anaphylaxis, after administration of COVID-19 vaccines and will regularly assess the benefits and risks of vaccination in the context of the evolving epidemiology of the pandemic,” the researchers wrote.
• Shen Wu Tan can be reached at stan@washingtontimes.com.
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