Health-care worker has severe allergic reaction to vaccine

A health-care worker in Alaska had a serious allergic reaction after getting the new coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech — the first such case reported in the United States since shots began going into arms earlier this week, state officials revealed Wednesday.

The Alaska case echoes two similar cases in Britain in which health care workers had serious but nonfatal allergic reactions to the vaccine.

But the British workers had histories of severe allergic reactions, whereas the Alaska woman had none, state health officials said. She is in stable condition and expected to be discharged shortly from a hospital where she was kept overnight.

In randomized trials, Pfizer reported no such allergic responses, known as anaphylaxis, but people with a history of such severe reactions were excluded from participating.

In this case, CDC officials said that monitoring systems worked well in that the woman’s reaction was caught while she was being monitored after the shot and she was immediately treated. The agency has put out guidance saying that people with a history of such severe reactions to any other vaccine or injectable therapy “may still receive vaccination, but they should be counseled about the unknown risks of developing a severe allergic reaction.”

The Alaska health care worker, described as middle- aged but otherwise not identified, began f lushing and experiencing other signs of an allergic response about 10 minutes after she received the shot Tuesday afternoon at Bartlett Regional Hospital in Juneau.

“When she arrived at the emergency room she was feeling short of breath. She was not wheezy. Her heart rate was elevated,” said Lindy Jones, the attending physician who treated her with epinephrine, commonly used to treat severe allergic responses. The symptoms came and went, however, and the worker stayed overnight in the intensive care unit.

By Wednesday morning she was in stable condition, no longer symptomatic and not on any medication. Jones said in a news conference that she would probably be discharged shortly. But because of her severe allergic reaction, she would not receive a second dose in several weeks as is the normal protocol with this vaccine.

“She kept a very positive attitude,” said Nobel Anderson, a doctor who treated her overnight. “She was excited that she got the first dose and was disappointed that she will not be getting the second dose. And she encouraged all of us to press on.”

Anne Zink, chief medical officer for Alaska, said the incident will not alter plans for distributing the vaccine.