Only one day after they started administering Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, United Kingdom regulators are already issuing a warning: Don’t get this vaccine if you have severe allergies or a “significant” history of allergic reactions.
The U.K. was the first country to give the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The U.S. FDA is currently reviewing the vaccine, with the idea of getting it to the American public yet this month. Pfizer released the first detailed documents on the vaccine to the U.S. FDA December 8, 2020.
As Time reported: “A summary of the regulator’s advice, seen by TIME, says that any person with a history of significant allergic reactions to vaccines, medicine or food should not receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. It also says that vaccinations should only be carried out in places where resuscitation facilities are available.”
The warning to be sure to only give the vaccines where resuscitation facilities are available raises a new question, as dentists, eye doctors and grocery store pharmacies in the U.S. apply to administer the COVID vaccines: Will these facilities be prepared with resuscitation measures and devices readily available, too?
SOURCES:
TIME December 9, 2020
Pfizer Briefing Document December 10, 2020
NBC News November 30, 2020