A cancer doctor in Boston experienced the first documented severe reaction from the Moderna vaccine. He attributes his training before being vaccinated because he was relieved of intubation. Now he sends a warning to others – if you suffer from allergies, educate yourself before you decide to take the vaccine. Come prepared.
Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh, a geriatric oncologist at Boston Medical Center, is severely allergic to shellfish. He got vaccinated on Christmas Eve. This is the first week of the launch of the Moderna vaccine. Sadrzadeh experienced an allergic reaction just minutes after receiving the vaccination. He had a meeting on Thursday afternoon and came prepared. He brought his personal EpiPen with him to the meeting. He used it after the allergic reaction started while he was being monitored by the nurses at the hospital. He was taken to the emergency department for evaluation, treatment and observation. By Friday morning, he said he was feeling normal again.
At first, Dr. Sadrzadeh thought the onset of his allergic reaction was stress or anxiety. He quickly realized that was not the case when his symptoms began. His tongue and throat tingled and began to numb. He began to sweat profusely, became pale and was very cold. He experienced a severe anaphylaxis reaction, the worst he said he had experienced since he was eleven, he said. The doctor acknowledges his prediction to bring EpiPen because it relieved him of the need to be intubated, his reaction was so severe. “I feel that if I didn’t have EpiPen with me, I would have intubated right now, because it was so severe.”
Dr. Sadrzadeh hopes to spread the word to other allergy sufferers about potential reactions to coronavirus vaccines.
Sadrzadeh said he hopes his story will encourage anyone with a history of allergies to arm themselves with information before getting vaccinated – and to bring EpiPen with them when they are vaccinated.
He also recommended that people with allergies be vaccinated with coronavirus in a hospital rather than at a community provider.
“I really want people to take this seriously, those people who have severe allergic reactions. I want to talk to their doctors, their allergist. I want them to take their EpiPen if they have it at home and also to inform the person giving them that injection that they have a severe allergic reaction, ”he said. “I knew the symptoms. I had the experience. I was a doctor and I was scared to death. Imagine someone who doesn’t have the information. “
He doesn’t want anyone else to go through the experience he had. Sadrzadeh offered to provide Moderna with a blood sample so that the company could figure out which ingredient in their vaccine could trigger an allergic reaction for some people.
Boston Medical Center issued a statement.
In a statement, David Kibbe, a spokesman for Boston Medical Center, said that Dr. Sadrzadeh “felt that he was developing an allergic reaction and that he was being allowed to administer EpiPen personally.
“He was taken to the emergency department, evaluated, treated, observed and discharged. She’s fine today.
I’m a little surprised that Dr. Sadrzadeh got the vaccine with his history of severe allergy. The CDC has issued a warning that Pfizer and Moderna vaccines may not be suitable for people with a history of anaphylaxis to the ingredients in both injections. The agency recommended that people with other allergies wait the standard 15 minutes after the injection before leaving the vaccination site. For those with an anaphylactic reaction to a substance, including another vaccine or injectable drug, an additional 15-minute check-up is recommended. As we have seen with others, allergic reactions to vaccines occur quickly. Moderna did not report any link between her vaccine and anaphylaxis. However, rare side effects are always possible with vaccines.
Neither ingredient in both vaccines has been identified as a common allergen. But several experts have cautiously indicated polyethylene glycol or PEG, which appears in both recipes, albeit in slightly different formulations, as a possible culprit. PEG is found in a number of pharmaceuticals, including ultrasound gel, laxatives and injectable steroids, and allergies to it are extremely rare.
Dr. Kuruvilla said that it remained possible for someone else to be responsible and that more investigations are needed to show the cause of this smattering of events.
Dr. Kimberly Blumenthal, an allergist and immunologist at Massachusetts General Hospital, noted that anaphylaxis can sometimes be difficult to confirm without a blood test that hunts an enzyme called triptase, which is released during allergic reactions. It is essential, she added, that there be protocols in place so that similar cases can be further investigated.
People who use lip and face fillers for cosmetic reasons are also warned about the risk of side effects. They may experience swelling and inflammation, as did many participants in the process.
A California dermatologist said the reaction is immunological, ABC7 reported yesterday.
Dr. Shirley Chi said that any side effect can be easily treated with steroids and antihistamines, adding: “Your immune system that causes inflammation is accelerated when you receive a vaccine, that’s how it should work.
“So it makes sense that you will see an immune response in certain areas where I see a substance that is not a natural substance in your body.”
Moderna vaccine manufacturers and the National Institutes of Health are considering conducting clinical trials of Covid-19 vaccines in highly allergic populations to help understand the rate of allergic reactions and their causes.