December 23rd local time, the New York City Health Department reported that a medical staff in New York City had a severe allergic reaction after being vaccinated against the novel coronavirus, which is the latest consecutive cases of adverse reactions reported by vaccinators across the United States.
At the same time, as some vaccine chaos continues to be exposed, and experts say that variant COVID-19 may have appeared in the United States, these negative news have raised doubts about vaccination among the American public.
Adverse reactions reported everywhere
The New York City Department of Health issued a statement on December 23: “We have received a report that medical staff have severe allergic reactions after being vaccinated against Pfizer against the novel coronavirus.
The medical staff is currently receiving treatment and the situation is temporarily stable.
However, the New York City health department also did not forget to appease the public, saying that cases of allergic reactions after vaccination against the novel coronavirus are extremely rare, and the vaccination will proceed as usual.
According to the data of the New York City government, more than 30,000 people have been vaccinated in the city.
The New York City Department of Health said that this is the first severe side effect response to a vaccine in the city, “we will continue to advance vaccination and distribution to ensure that medical staff and nursing home personnel are protected by vaccines.”
At present, New York City has begun to vaccinate against Pfizer and Modena. Previously, it was reported that the severe allergy case could not be 100% determined which vaccine was vaccinated by medical staff with side effects, but experts believe that according to clinical experimental data, Pfizer vaccine is more likely to occur.
Good reaction. However, the New York City health department declined to disclose more information, saying that it is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to closely track more cases of vaccine side effects.
In fact, before the first severe allergic reaction in New York, Alaska had three consecutive cases of adverse reactions after vaccination of medical staff.
The first case occurred on December 15, when a local medical staff developed allergic reactions such as rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath and rash 10 minutes after vaccination.
The second case occurred on the 16th, also 10 minutes after vaccination, the vaccinated patients developed symptoms such as eye edema, dizziness and throat; The third incident occurred on the 17th. Ten minutes after vaccination, a clinician developed allergies, including swollen tongue, hoarse voice and dyspnea, and was immediately sent to the hospital for treatment.
After adverse reactions were reported everywhere, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said recently that people who are allergic to the ingredients of the coronavirus vaccine should not be vaccinated.
However, people who are allergic to non-vaccine ingredients such as food and pets, as well as mild allergy to vaccines, can still continue vaccination. The agency recommends that doctors should be consulted about whether it is appropriate to get the vaccine before getting the coronavirus vaccine.
The vaccine chaos needs to be dealt with urgently.
As adverse reactions among vaccinators have been reported everywhere, Monsef Slauy, the head of the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine program, said: “We are advancing a plan to test the Modner vaccine and Pfizer vaccines on highly susceptible subjects and try to understand the immune mechanism behind this allergic reaction.” Many medical experts say that allergic reactions caused by vaccines are rare, but sometimes they also occur.
In addition to the recently more concerned Pfizer vaccine, some experts say that the Modner vaccine may have side effects such as fatigue, headache and muscle pain, as well as some rare symptoms, such as nausea, vomiting and facial swelling, which are likely to be caused by injection.
Although some side effects are difficult to eliminate, most of them will disappear within a week.
In addition to side effects, after the first batch of coronavirus vaccinations in the United States began on December 15, there were also some chaos, including the abandonment of vaccines due to abnormal cold chain transportation, and the failure to receive a predetermined number of vaccines in some places, which have impacted public confidence.
In addition, some large enterprises and rich people are using all kinds of power to try to obtain priority vaccination rights. Several media have exposed many attempts to buy vaccines at high prices, and some people are even considering donating money to hospitals in exchange for vaccines.
In this case, minorities and low-income communities may fall victim to the epidemic prevention process again.
Due to this series of negative factors, the American public’s confidence in the coronavirus vaccine is insufficient. A survey led by National Geographic found that only 61% of Americans expressed their willingness to be vaccinated.
Of the 2,201 Americans surveyed, 37 percent answered “very likely,” 24% responded “a little possible,” 11 percent said “unlikely,” 19 percent said “very unlikely,” and another 10 percent said they didn’t know.
Variant virus adds variables
Scientists around the world are stepping up assessing the risks as mutant COVID-19 is spreading rapidly in the UK. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said recently that he believes that the mutant virus will eventually spread in the United States and may even appear in the United States, but he does not believe that the mutant virus is the cause of the current surge in infections in the United States.
At present, pharmaceutical companies are still trying to convey a positive message and try to alleviate public doubts about whether a vaccine can cover mutant viruses.
A spokesman for Pfizer said that even if there is a new viral variant that the current vaccine does not cover well, the genetic technology used by the company to produce the vaccine is flexible and can change the RNA sequence in the vaccine to cover the new variant.
The spokesperson also said that Pfizer and its partners have tested blood samples from vaccinators to test the vaccine’s ability to respond to multiple mutants, and so far, the company has found consistent coverage of all detected mutants. Pfizer and partners are now generating data to try to understand how strong the vaccine is to cope with new variants through blood samples from the vaccination population.
Although public health experts and pharmaceutical industry executives in the United States say that the latest approved vaccine can avoid contracting the mutant virus, uncertainty still exists.
As Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Center for Global Health Sciences and Safety at Georgetown University, said: “The new variants of the virus are worrying, but we still have a lot of things we don’t know… I don’t think we can draw any conclusions about it, just knowing we need to do more in-depth research.”
In the face of many uncertainties, Bloomberg recently commented that the coronavirus vaccine needs further testing.
Bloomberg said that if there is any common theme of the U.S. response to the coronavirus, it is a surprising waste. Our leaders waste time, public trust, and people’s economic and emotional resources.
They waste the opportunity to do a good job in science and fail to test drugs and vaccines in a way that serves the interests of the people rather than the interests of pharmaceutical companies.
But it’s not too late to change direction. For example, it can test the possibility of changing from two injections to single injections. In a word, continuous research is needed.
