14/12/2020
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Say. No. More.
***See my page for updates on ingredients, side-effects, FDA recommendations, etc on the Pfizer vaccine.***
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You probably saw those reports on your FB walls, news outlets, and friend's pages yesterday. In summary, the UK reported 2 people had a severe allergic reaction after receiving the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Should we be worried? Let's talk about what this means and what it doesn't mean.
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1. The UK vaccinated at least 5,000 people on the first day (yesterday) of the mass vaccination rollout, including front-line healthcare workers and persons over the age of 80.
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2. TWO of the thousands vaccinated had a severe allergic reaction, and both are doing fine after receiving treatment. It's really important to define what that is AND isn't. These two people carry an EpiPen with them and had a history of severe reactions. In other words, this is not like seasonal allergies due to pollen. It's also not like your stomach hurts when you eat too much pizza.
**A quick note: The mRNA vaccines do not contain traces of nuts, any animal products, or egg products like some traditional flu-vaccines. I'm linking to two great articles about that in the sources. I know many of you with severe egg allergies have questions about ingredients.
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3. What's not a severe allergic reaction? Having a sore arm, fatigue, or other slight side-effects after you get a flu shot does not mean you have a history of severe allergic reactions. These reactions after a vaccine is your body doing what it is supposed to do after a vaccination - it's building your immune system up to fight the real thing if you need it.
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4. The UK health advisory group did recommend that persons with a history of SIGNIFICANT allergic reactions to not get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for the time being (this could change when we know more). There are several of you who are in that group. But, there are LOTS of us who are not. For those that are not in that group, the Phase 1, 2, and 3 trials of 38,000+ people show that the vaccine has a really good safety profile (see yesterday's post for that data). If allergic reactions (widespread) were going to show up in the general population (so, those without a history of severe allergic reactions), we would have seen it by now.
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5. Some recommendations:
-Remember these reportings of ANY type of adverse events (from a sore arm due to the jab all the way to severe reactions) are normal. It signifies the FDA, the UK health groups, and the safety oversight committees are doing their jobs. We saw that yesterday. Out of an overabundance of caution, the UK recommended persons with a history of severe allergic reactions to not receive the vaccine - after 2 people. This type of reporting and abundance of caution is a good thing. But, the fast-paced-2020-social-media makes it seem scary.
-Remember this is rare. 1 person out of every 1.4 million persons who receive a vaccine have a severe allergic reaction. The risk to the general population is really rare. The risk of getting COVID-19 and passing to my family/neighbors is much higher. The risks of older family members being hospitalized with severe COVID-19 is much higher.
-The Pfizer COVID-19 trials did not include the small subset of the population with a history of severe allergic reactions (not having this group in the trials is normal for vaccine safety and efficacy trials). So, watching this group (and being really cautious) means the monitoring system is doing what it was designed to do.
-If you are in that group of a history of severe reactions (again, this is like needing to carry an EpiPen or if your doctor says you are in this group), I bet the FDA will give guidance today on who should or should not receive the vaccine.
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6. The summary note:
For the rest of us, I would urge patience as we share the news stories or read about these events. Be patient as you form your opinions about the vaccine. Fake news travels 10-20 times faster than real news (even after removing bots - see source below). I'm not saying don't question things. I'm saying be cautious and wise to know what reports mean and don't mean. I understand the many questions about these vaccines and feeling like it's rushed or are scared about the UK news. I'm going to link to the past 6 posts I've done to help with that. But, I also want to urge caution and patience. For now, listen to your doctor's recommendations on these vaccines. We should hear more from the FDA today about recommendations too.
If you want another opinion from a MD allergist/immunologist, here's a great thread: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1336723195081187329.html?fbclid=IwAR06o8k9zc8-10vjsN-qmroZ7XOOzh6OvyMIAwymZYxhLsEeOZkcYiUKWNI
If you'd rather receive these posts as emails, sign-up on my blog. Click 'Subscribe to my blog': https://emilysmithynet.wordpress.com/covid-19-posts/
-Friendly neighbor epidemiologist
**Post for non-FB people:
https://tinyurl.com/y5y9ro8e
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VACCINE SERIES
(each of these posts have all-the-data at the end of each post):
๐๐๐๐ ๐ - ๐๐๐ซ๐ ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฆ๐ฎ๐ง๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐๐ง๐ ๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ: ๐๐๐๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐๐๐ https://tinyurl.com/y27txvro
๐๐๐๐ ๐ - ๐๐ก๐๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐ญ๐ข๐ฆ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง? ๐๐จ๐ฐ ๐ฐ๐๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐๐จ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฎ๐ซ๐ซ๐๐ง๐ญ ๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ข๐ง๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐จ๐ซ๐ค?
https://tinyurl.com/y2vte5lz
๐๐๐๐ ๐ - ๐๐ก๐จ๐, ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฌ๐ ๐ฐ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฆ๐๐๐ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ข๐๐ค, ๐ซ๐ข๐ ๐ก๐ญ? ๐๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐๐ง ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐ ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐๐ฒ ๐๐ซ๐ ๐ฌ๐๐๐?
https://tinyurl.com/y2awosyn
๐๐๐๐ ๐ - "๐๐ก๐๐ง ๐ฐ๐ข๐ฅ๐ฅ ๐ ๐๐ ๐๐๐ฅ๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ ๐๐ญ ๐จ๐ง๐? ๐๐ง๐, ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐๐๐๐ข๐๐๐ฌ ๐ฐ๐ก๐จ ๐ ๐๐ญ๐ฌ ๐ ๐ฏ๐๐๐๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ข๐ซ๐ฌ๐ญ?" ๐๐ง๐, ๐ ๐ง๐จ๐ญ๐ ๐จ๐ ๐ฌ๐จ๐ฅ๐ข๐๐๐ซ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐ฏ๐๐ซ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฌ ๐ข๐ง๐๐ข๐ฏ๐ข๐๐ฎ๐๐ฅ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ ๐ญ๐ก๐ข๐ง๐ค๐ข๐ง๐ .
https://tinyurl.com/y39cbptv
POST 5 - Myth-busters for vaccines
https://tinyurl.com/y2woz462
POST 6 - Explaining the FDA review and talking about the final Pfizer study results
https://tinyurl.com/y22jd32f
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SOURCES:
UK COVID vaccine review: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/dr-june-raine-how-we-backed-a-jab-before-rest-of-the-west-3jvzsxtqs
UK COVID vaccine site: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/coronavirus-vaccination/coronavirus-vaccine/
Vaccine ingredients and production 101: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02756-5
https://www.businessinsider.com/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-ingredients-allergic-reactions-2020-12
The spread of true and false news on social media:
https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-twitter-false-news-travels-faster-true-stories-0308
Photo: Margaret Keenan, 90, becomes the first person in the U.K. to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, on Dec. 8, 2020. Jacob KingโPA Wire/Bloomberg/Getty Images
