I remember when the Pfizer vaccine first came out there was a lot of discussion about what the cause of the allergic reactions the people were having was from. Some people said it was due to polyethylene glycol, which I am skeptical about as polyethylene glycol is in many products that people use every day including some foods, some toothpaste, shampoo and even the common laxative MiraLAX which is also used before every colonoscopy and people are not dropping of allergic reactions. It would be interesting also if anyone knows if people are reporting allergic reactions to the vaccine that previously used products containing polyethylene glycol. Some other people said it was due to the nanoparticles, some people said it was due to the fact that it was a mRNA vaccine which is a new technology not used on humans before and people are having allergic reactions to the technology. Did people ever decide for sure what the cause of these allergic reactions were? I read an article saying that it was the nanoparticles that were causing the allergic reactions, is this true? This is a link to the article
I have a relative that wants to get the Pfizer vaccine but is concerned because they have previously had a reaction soon after getting the flu shot. They had previously had other vaccines such as such as the tetanus shot and those were fine. I know when the shot first came out the English health authorities said anyone who had previously had an allergic reaction to another vaccine should not get the shot. It does not make sense for them to get the shot and then end up in the hospital with an allergic reaction and get Covid from some other patient there. This person had previously used health products that had polyethylene glycol in them and do not have a reaction, but as I said before that is not the issue for sure. It would also be good to know how often people have allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine compared to something like a tetanus or the flu shot.
They are extremely rare. But, millions of shots are being given. Many reactions people hear of are likely to be vasovagal reactions from getting a shot, but I believe a small number have had true anaphylactic reactions, which required hospitalization and treatment with epinephrine and steroids.
Here’s what the CDC says about the potential allergens in the Covid vaccines:
If You Are Allergic to Polyethylene Glycol (PEG) or Polysorbate
PEG and polysorbate are closely related to each other. PEG is an ingredient in the mRNA vaccines, and polysorbate is an ingredient in the J&J/Janssen vaccine.
If you are allergic to PEG, you should not get an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine. Ask your doctor if you can get the J&J/Janssen vaccine.
If you are allergic to polysorbate, you should not get the J&J/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. Ask your doctor if you can get an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.
If You Are Allergic to Other Types of Vaccines
If you have had an immediate allergic reaction—even if it was not severe—to a vaccine or injectable therapy for another disease, ask your doctor if you should get a COVID-19 vaccine. Your doctor will help you decide if it is safe for you to get vaccinated.
If You Have Allergies Not Related to Vaccines
CDC recommends that people get vaccinated even if they have a history of severe allergic reactions not related to vaccines or injectable medications—such as food, pet, venom, environmental, or latex allergies. People with a history of allergies to oral medications or a family history of severe allergic reactions may also get vaccinated.….
The best thing to do is to ask their doctor or to discuss the options with the pharmacist. True allergic reactions to vaccines are rare. Confirm with a physician that what was experienced was an allergic reaction to the vaccine. Again, true allergic reactions to vaccines are rare, as stated above.
To re-emphasize the emphasis, although I do think people have had life threatening anaphylactic reactions, the rate is infinitesimal. People are at incredibly far higher risk from not being vaccinated.
To re-emphasize what @BippityBoppityBoo said above, people with a history of allergic reaction to an ingredient in one vaccine likely can safely just get a different one. Practically no one will have a history of reactions to ingredients in all 3 (US) vaccines.
Some people have been casting doubt on whether anyone is actually having an anaphylactic reaction, and saying even if they are, that’s what the waiting period is for, and there are epipens on hand. I think this is unnecessarily handwaving a serious side effect. It is serious, and I doubt that people who’ve been hospitalized for days of treatment have been that badly misdiagnosed. But something can be both extremely serious and extremely rare, and we can then try to further minimize the risks, while still acknowledging them.
My partner had a mild, if somewhat frightening, anaphylactic reaction to Pfizer. The right side of her neck and jaw swelled up alarmingly fast - although weirdly the day after the shot. It stopped as quickly as it started and she had no breathing problem.
The doctor had no explanation for that delay, but we’d forgotten that decades ago she’d had a full-on anaphylactic reaction to a contrast dye for a scan - that needed an epipen. Whether that was related who knows.
She had AstraZeneca for her second shot and that went fine.
I had a reaction like that to dye about 20 years ago (it’s on my chart as “contrast dye”). I didn’t have any sort of reaction to Pfizer. Although I do take a daily antihistimine now, because earlier in 2020, a year before I got my shot, I had an unexplained intense hives reaction to something that still remains unknown.
(I’m not doubting your partner or her reaction btw. I’m just actually surprised to hear of another contrast dye allergic person! Hullo!)
The PEG allergy is rare, that is true, but it is documented and documented as the reason behind most of the severe allergic reactions to the mRNA vaccines during the testing phase. Indeed, the article you link to speaks of these documented reactions.
As you note, PEG is very common. “Very common” is a feature of many allergens and yes, it can make life complicated for the allergic person. The thing is, someone with a severe PEG allergy is most likely going to know about it after their initial reaction(s) and yes, they will have to avoid “some foods, some toothpaste, shampoo and even the common laxative MiraLAX”.
I have had a severe reaction after a flu shot which is why I no longer get flu shots. I had no problem with the Pfizer vaccine. They use different technology for making the shot. If the person is still concerned she can give the person administering the vaccine a heads-up that she’s has a history of a past vaccine issue and inquire if they’re prepared for an allergic emergency.
If a severe allergic reaction is caught early (which it should be if the place given the vaccination had the proper emergency equipment) it’s something that has a high likelihood of being treated in the ER over the course of a few hours followed by release for home recovery. That’s what’s happened to me the two times I had anaphylaxis. It’s serious, but especially these days, there’s a potential to not need to be admitted for a lengthy stay. Yes, sometimes people do need a lengthier stay, but that’s the reason for them asking you to stay put and be observed for 15 minutes (or 30) and have epi-pens on hand - to treat the reaction early and avoid lengthier stays in a hospital. The worst reactions tend to happen fast. Delayed reactions can occur, but take a bit longer to become life-threatening (usually).
Regardless, the odds of having a bad reaction to catching covid are MUCH higher than a bad reaction to the vaccine.
The point is, you can’t rule out polyethylene glycol as the cause of the allergic reactions on the grounds of “PEG allergies are extremely rare”, because PEG allergies being very rare would result in vaccine allergies also being very rare… which is exactly what we see.
That could be a reaction to the shot, and as for the weird delay, well, allergic reactions are weird. But also don’t rule out the possibility that it might have been a reaction to something else completely unrelated to the shot, and just coincidentally happened to occur the day after the shot. After all, as we can see from @ZipperJJ 's anecdote, sometimes people do have allergic reactions with no identifiable cause.
Just an anecdatum: a friend (who is severely allergic to shellfish, for what it’s worth) had a very serious reaction to the first shot. She was able to get the second shot under the supervision of an allergist: basically, she was given the second dose in many microdoses, and monitored the whole time. It took several hours, and there were allergic reactions, but in that environment they were able to control them and she is now fully vaccinated.
That’s really interesting. It seems like, normally, a person who’d had a serious reaction to a two-dose vaccine would just be told not to get the second dose.
I assume the difference with covid is that it’s a bigger risk of serious consequences if you get it, and there being so many unvaccinated people/no herd immunity. But, wow, what an ordeal to get fully vaccinated.
There was a delay of several months while they worked out how to do it. The person in question has some elevated risk factors for covid and has a job involving travel and meeting people, so I think there was a strong push to find a solution.