Very Few Anaphylaxis Cases Confirmed Following COVID-19 Vaccination

The U.S. CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report published on January 6, 2020, monitoring by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System detected 21 cases of anaphylaxis after administering a reported 1,893,360 first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty).

Seventeen of the 21 patients had a known allergy to medicines, food, or insects. With 71% of these occurred within 15 minutes of vaccination.

The CDC stated 'Locations administering COVID-19 vaccines should adhere to CDC guidance for the use of COVID-19 vaccines, including screening recipients for contraindications and precautions, having the necessary supplies available to manage anaphylaxis, implementing the recommended postvaccination observation periods, and immediately treating suspected cases of anaphylaxis with an intramuscular injection of epinephrine.'