On Wednesday, two Alaska health workers also experienced reactions. One was too mild to be considered anaphylaxis. But the other, which happened in a middle-aged woman with no history of allergies, was bad enough to go to hospital, even after she received a pill of epinephrine.
“What’s happening looks very unusual to me,” said Dr. Kimberly Blumenthal, an allergist, immunologist and drug allergy researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital. Vaccine-related allergic reactions are usually rare, occurring at about one in a million.
Dr Blumenthal also said it was strange to see allergic reactions accumulate in just two places: Britain and Alaska. Zeroing insisted on the commonalities between the two hotspots, she said, researchers could find out where the problem came from.
Do we know for sure that the vaccine is to blame for their comments?
British and U.S. agencies are investigating the causes, but no official has announced a direct link.
But Dr. Blumenthal suspects that they were connected to the scenes, as the reactions were immediate, occurring within minutes of the injection.
“We have to think it was relative because of the time,” she said.
And it is unknown whether a particular ingredient was to blame. The Pfizer vaccine contains only 10 ingredients. Most importantly a molecule called a messenger RNA, or mRNA – a genetic material that instructs human cells to produce a coronavirus protein called a spike. Once done, a spike teaches the immune system to recognize the coronavirus until it is shut down in the future. Messenger RNA, found naturally in human cells, is not likely to be compromised, and decays within about a day of being injected.
The other nine ingredients are a mixture of salts, fatty substances and sugars that stabilize the vaccine. None of these are allergens. The only chemical with a history of sensitizing reactivity is polyethylene glycol, or PEG, which helps pack the mRNA into an oily sheath, protecting it as it enters human cells.
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Answers to vaccine questions
With the spread of the coronavirus vaccine starting in the US, here are answers to some questions you might be asking:
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- If I live in the US, when will I be vaccinated? While the exact order that vaccine recipients receive may vary by state, most medical staff and residents are likely to put long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is made, this article will help.
- When will I get back to normal life after receiving the vaccine? Life returns to normal only when society as a whole receives adequate protection against the coronavirus. Once countries approve vaccination, only a small percentage of their citizens can be vaccinated in the first two months. Most unvaccinated people are still at risk from disease. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines show strong protection against illness. But it is also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they are infected as they get only mild symptoms or nothing. Scientists still do not know if the vaccines also inhibit the spread of the coronavirus virus. So for the time being, even people with vaccines have to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds and so on. Once people get enough of the vaccine, it will be very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve that goal, life may begin to approach something as normal by the end of 2021.
- If I have been vaccinated, do I still have to wear a mask? Yes, but never. Here’s why. The coronavirus vaccines are injected deep into the muscles and stimulate the immune system to produce antibodies. This seems to be enough protection to keep the vaccine sick. But what is not clear is whether the virus can flower in the nose – and be infected or inhaled to catch others – even as antibodies elsewhere in the body have moved to prevent the vaccinated person from being vaccinated. The vaccine clinical trials were designed to find out if vaccinated people are protected from illness – not to see if they could still spread the coronavirus. Based on studies of the flu vaccine and even patients with Covid-19, researchers have reason to be optimistic that people will not spread the virus vaccine, but more research is needed. In the meantime, everyone – even vaccinated people – needs to think of themselves as potential silent scavengers and continue to wear a mask. Read more here.
- Will it hurt? What are the side effects? The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines are delivered as a phototherapy in the arm, like other standard vaccines. The injection into your arm will not feel any different from any other vaccine, but the rate of short-term side effects appears to be higher than a flu shot. Tens of thousands of people have already been vaccinated, and none have reported real health problems. The side effects, which may resemble Covid-19 symptoms, last about a day and appear more likely after the second dose. Early reports from vaccine tests show that some people may need to take a day off work because they feel lousy after receiving a second dose. In a Pfizer study, around half developed fat. Other side effects occurred in at least 25 to 33 percent of patients, sometimes more, including headache, chills and muscle pain. While these experiences are not pleasant, they are a good indication that your own immune system is putting up a strong response to the vaccine that provides long-term immunity.
- Will mRNA vaccines alter my genes? No. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use genetic molecules to prime the immune system. That molecule, called mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in oily bubbles that can melt into a cell, allowing the molecule to slip in. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which stimulates the immune system. At any given time, each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they excrete to make proteins on their own. Once these proteins are made, our cells then break down the mRNA with a specific enzyme. The mRNA molecules that our cells produce can only last a few minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell’s enzyme a little longer, so that the cells can make extra virus proteins and stimulate a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only last for a maximum of a few days before they are destroyed.
But PEG is, in general, inert and widespread. It is found in ultrasound gel, laxatives like Miralax and injectable steroids, among other drugs and products, Dr. Blumenthal said. Despite the severity of the chemical, she said, “I have only seen one case of PEG allergy – it is, in fact, uncommon. ”