CONTEXT: Real World data on likelihood of severe allergic reactions associated with COVID-19 vaccines | US data only, study based at Mass General Brigham.
IMPACT: Medium
READ TIME: 2 mins
1. “Almost immediately after the first mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines were authorized for emergency use and administered to individuals outside of clinical trials, reports of anaphylaxis—a life-threatening whole-body allergic reaction—raised widespread concerns among experts and the public.”
2. “It is critical to have accurate information on allergic reactions to these vaccines, not only for our current situation, but also because this new vaccine platform is so important for future pandemic responses,” said lead author Kimberly Blumenthal, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and co-director of the Clinical Epidemiology Program in Massachusetts General Hospital’s Division of Rheumatology, Allergy and Immunology.”
3. “With this in mind, Blumenthal and her colleagues decided to carefully document all allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, once they began employee vaccinations at Mass General Brigham.”
4. “Among 52,805 employees who were surveyed after they received their first dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine, 2 percent experienced allergic reactions, and anaphylaxis occurred at a rate of 2.47 per 10,000 individuals.”
5. ““The only allergy exclusion for vaccination was a prior episode of anaphylaxis to an inactive ingredient in the vaccine, called polyethylene glycol, or a cross-reactive inactive ingredient called polysorbate,” said co-senior author Paige Wickner, HMS assistant professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.”
Source URL: https://hms.harvard.edu/news/safety-check