LINCOLN, Nebraska (WOWT) – Pete Ricketts’ government on Friday shared some additional details about the CDC’s investigation into how COVID-19 vaccination may have contributed to a Nebraskan’s January death in the 1940s.
Usually, he said, vaccination death is caused by a severe allergic reaction, which is why those who receive the vaccine are asked to wait about 15 minutes after receiving it – but that was probably not the case.
“In this case, the person died one or two weeks after receiving the first dose of vaccine, so it was not an anaphylactic reaction,” Ricketts told his news conference Friday morning. “It is not clear that this person died because of the vaccine that was listed and one of the causes on the death certificate, but that is why we are investigating.”
Some information about the death may not be shared to protect that person’s privacy, but officials will try to provide as much detail as possible as the investigation progresses, the governor said.
Dr. Gary Anthone, Nebraska’s chief physician, agreed that Nebraskan, who died 10 to 14 days after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, is unlikely to have an anaphylactic reaction.
COVID-19 vaccines “had a very safe profile,” he said. The Pfizer vaccine had 5 anaphylactic reactions per million doses of vaccination, and the Moderna vaccine had 3 anaphylactic reactions per 1 million doses. This equates to flu shots, as well as measles, mumps and rubella vaccines, Anthone said.
The governor said that so far about 165,000 non-British people have received COVID-19 vaccines.
“It would be very unusual for someone to die 10 days to two weeks after receiving the vaccination, so that’s why we need this investigation (CDC),” Anthone said.
Speaking more about the launch of the vaccine, Ricketts reiterated that Nebraska was in Phase 1B, giving priority to those aged 65 and over, but noted that there may be some rare exceptions where someone who does not “exactly match the profile ”The current age group a vaccine. This is because when clinics have a few doses left, they look to those in other future priority groups to get vaccinated so that doses are not wasted, he said, noting that there is no “stand-by” list. .
In the registry system, providers can see when they have had to drop a dose of vaccination, but the system is not able to extract that information at this time, said Ashley Newmyer, DHHS chief data strategist.
Officials would not give details about the doses of COVID-19 vaccine that the state should have given.
A Douglas County Department of Health spokesman said Friday that DCHD had “dropped a dose because of the needle’s failure.” In addition, he said, the department has a “reverse call list” for additional doses, “so everyone gets used to it.”
Ricketts said the federal government has selected 33 of the 43 pharmacies that have requested the retail vaccine allocation for pharmacies, he said. The governor again criticized the federal government for managing the implementation of the retail pharmacy program, saying the state’s health districts did not receive enough to begin planning this part of the vaccine launch.
The governor said that state registration in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccine through local health departments was faster and more timely than that of the federal pharmacy program. He said officials are working on a plan to use any FEMA aid the state could receive to replace volunteers who help test and administer vaccines with paid staff.
WEATHER WARNING: Ricketts warned Nebraskani of the extreme cold weather for the weekend and urged them to stay home if they didn’t need to go outside – or to make sure they had a cold weather kit if they did.
Watch Friday’s press conference
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