A doctor in Boston had an allergic reaction after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, according to the hospital where he works, but he is doing well.
The Boston Medical Center confirmed Friday night that Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh, who appears to have a severe crustacean allergy, was taken to the emergency room after the first dose of the Cambridge-based vaccine.
It is the first known allergic reaction to the Modern coronavirus vaccine, according to The New York Times, although other vaccines currently used are also known to cause allergic reactions in rare cases. More than 35,000 people have been vaccinated in Massachusetts since Tuesday, according to the state’s new dashboard.
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Sadrzadeh, a geriatric oncologist, was seen by nurses after being vaccinated, following the hospital’s protocol for all recipients, when he began to feel an allergic reaction, according to a BMC spokesman.
Sadrzadeh had his own personal EpiPen with him and used it himself, then was taken to the emergency department for evaluation, treatment and observation before being discharged. Since Friday, he is doing well, said the hospital representative.
British officials are investigating reports that two people who received the Pfizer vaccine had allergic reactions. Medical experts say that although the reactions are rare, they are not unheard of for vaccines of any kind and are usually short-lived.
US health officials say both Moderna and Pfizer coronavirus vaccines are safe, and medical experts agree that allergic reactions to vaccines are rare, but can sometimes happen.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends: “If you have ever had a severe allergic reaction to any ingredient in a COVID-19 vaccine … you should not receive that specific vaccine. If you have had a severe allergic reaction to other vaccines or injectable therapies, you should ask your doctor if you should get a COVID-19 vaccine. Your doctor will help you decide if it is safe to get vaccinated. “
Just over a million people in the United States had received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine since Wednesday morning, according to the CDC, and only a handful of reactions to it qualified as anaphylaxis, a severe and life-threatening allergic reaction.
It is not clear why some people experience allergic reactions after receiving blows. Fatigue, headaches and muscle aches have been observed to be the most common side effects of the Moderna vaccine, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
Moderna and Pfizer have now reported that their COVID-19 vaccines have been extremely effective in studies. But how does it work and what are the differences between the two? Benjamin Neuman, a professor of biological studies at Texas A&M, breaks down the specifics of both vaccines.
A study led by a team from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases examines why some people have suffered severe allergic reactions and expects to include several hundred people who have a history of severe allergic reactions.
Moments after receiving the vaccine containing the vaccine, Sadrzadeh’s heart began to flow, then he felt the tingling in his tongue and throat and began to numb, he told the Boston Globe. He called it the worst allergic reaction he has experienced since he was 11 – he is allergic to shellfish.
But Sadrzadeh told the newspaper he felt normal again by Friday morning and hoped his story would encourage anyone with a history of allergies to be educated with information before getting vaccinated.
The Moderna coronavirus vaccine began arriving in Massachusetts on Tuesday as part of a shipment of more than 116,000 doses. Delivery was added to 59,475 doses from Pfizer that were distributed in the state in the first week of arrival. Of these, Boston Medical Center received its first shipment of 75,000 doses of Moderna vaccine in addition to the 2,000 doses from Pfizer, which it has already begun administering to staff and patients.