Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day three hundred
Speaker 1: and three since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's
Speaker 1: main story. Some people have gotten severe allergic reactions after
Speaker 1: being vaccinated for COVID nineteen. While the number is very small,
Speaker 1: it's higher than it is for the flu shot. What
Speaker 1: does that mean for you? But first, here's what happened
Speaker 1: in virus News today. In Israel, one of the country's
Speaker 1: with the most effective vaccine programs, the shots may already
Speaker 1: be working. The country has inoculated about of its population,
Speaker 1: and it is starting to see signs that the swift
Speaker 1: campaign is slowing the virus. A study from the Sheba
Speaker 1: Medical Center of around five hundred healthcare workers who got
Speaker 1: the Fighter shot showed more than fifty produced antibodies after
Speaker 1: the first week. The findings are preliminary, but they're encouraging.
Speaker 1: In New York City, residents looking to get vaccines have
Speaker 1: to navigate a bewildering system that's hindering plans to speed
Speaker 1: up inoculations. According to a tweet from Comptroller Scott Stringer,
Speaker 1: who is also a mayoral candidate, to ramp up its
Speaker 1: slow rollout. The city opened mass vaccination sites on Sunday
Speaker 1: in Brooklyn, and the Bronx extended shots on Monday to
Speaker 1: people seventy five and over and encouraged everyone eligible to
Speaker 1: schedule an appointment, but the sign up process is fractured
Speaker 1: and confusing. Meanwhile, the city's mayor, build A. Blasio reaffirmed
Speaker 1: his goal of dolling out one million COVID nineteen doses
Speaker 1: by the end of January. Finally, Faser and bio Ntech
Speaker 1: raised their COVID nineteen vaccine production target for this year
Speaker 1: to two billion shots. The partners have already agreed to
Speaker 1: deliver more than half that capacity. Bio Ntech said in
Speaker 1: a presentation on Monday, a new production site in Marburg,
Speaker 1: Germany will be able to make as many as seven
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty million doses per year. And now for
Speaker 1: today's main story. As vaccinations roll out across the country,
Speaker 1: a few people have incurred serious allergic reactions, despite that
Speaker 1: the CDC is sticking with its recommendation that most people
Speaker 1: should still get the shots. I spoke with healthcare reporter
Speaker 1: and a court about why. Almost as soon as people
Speaker 1: began to receive shots of COVID nineteen vaccines. We heard
Speaker 1: reports of allergic reactions and I was just hoping you
Speaker 1: might tell us a little bit about the kinds of
Speaker 1: reactions people were experiencing with regard to the COVID nineteen vaccine. Right,
Speaker 1: So we know that there are in general with vaccines
Speaker 1: reactions people can have to getting shots, and and many
Speaker 1: of them are are mild and they go away. You know,
Speaker 1: I think we've all had that sort of injection site
Speaker 1: paying your arm feels a little sore, it goes away. Um.
Speaker 1: You can have other things like fever, headache again, things
Speaker 1: that are very short lived, Um, typically kind of disappear.
Speaker 1: So what we're talking about here is a little bit different.
Speaker 1: The main kind of safety concern is these year allergic
Speaker 1: reactions known as anaphylaxis, which you know, can be life threatening.
Speaker 1: Those it's rare that people die of it. And specifically,
Speaker 1: we're getting a clearer picture now from the US Centers
Speaker 1: for Disease Control and Prevention of how frequently this occurs,
Speaker 1: and the answer is very infrequently. It's the CDC says
Speaker 1: it's had about twenty nine confirmed cases of anaphylaxis to
Speaker 1: these COVID nineteen shots so far. These are both to
Speaker 1: the Fiser shot as well as the Maderna shot. But
Speaker 1: the rate at which this is happening, you know, twenty
Speaker 1: nine of the millions of people who have been vaccinated
Speaker 1: is is still quite low. So it's the rate is
Speaker 1: about one in one thousand people. It's important to note
Speaker 1: like these are severe reactions. People went to the hospital,
Speaker 1: you know, they were some of them were treating the
Speaker 1: emergency room. Some were actually hospitalized or taken to the
Speaker 1: i c U. But ultimately we haven't had any death
Speaker 1: from these reactions, the CDC is saying, So that's positive news.
Speaker 1: The big takeaway here is that although there are risks
Speaker 1: to getting COVID shots, like to any medical product, to
Speaker 1: any drug, to any vaccine, ultimately the CDC. CDC is
Speaker 1: still urging most people to get the shots. And the
Speaker 1: two exceptions they've outlined are people who know that they
Speaker 1: are allergic to vaccine ingredients and people who had a
Speaker 1: reaction to that first dose of the covid vaccine should
Speaker 1: not get the second dose. And as far as you know,
Speaker 1: were we now have a variety of different vaccine shots.
Speaker 1: We have as you mentioned Fiser, we have moderna UM.
Speaker 1: You know, there's the Astra Zeneca and the University of
Speaker 1: Oxford vaccine as well. And you know, when we're talking
Speaker 1: about potential allergic reactions, is there any difference between these
Speaker 1: various shots as far as potential allergies to ingredients or
Speaker 1: something along those lines that would depend on what shot
Speaker 1: someone is getting. That is a really good question and
Speaker 1: I think we would all love to know the answer
Speaker 1: to that. Something that's coming up now in terms of
Speaker 1: the allergic reactions to these early COVID nineteen shots is
Speaker 1: really health officials trying to understand more about why this
Speaker 1: is happening and and specifically the rate we're seeing, which is,
Speaker 1: you know, somewhat higher than the rate of anaphylaxis scene
Speaker 1: with flu vaccines. They're trying to make sense of why
Speaker 1: that could be. Isn't something specific to this m R
Speaker 1: and a technology which both the MADERNA and fisor vaccines
Speaker 1: um use, or could it just be something else else
Speaker 1: going on? Another factor here is that this is a
Speaker 1: vaccine rollout that's being really closely monitored right then with
Speaker 1: good reason um. And that means that it's possible we're
Speaker 1: and hopeful that we're picking up on more of these
Speaker 1: cases than we normally do because there's so much scrutinay
Speaker 1: being paid to that safety profile here. So it's something
Speaker 1: where we a you know, be learning more as these
Speaker 1: shots are rolled out and as more become available. As
Speaker 1: you said, there have been fairly few reports of severe
Speaker 1: allergic reactions to the say either Fiser or modern as vaccines,
Speaker 1: But have those reports of reactions altered any plans for
Speaker 1: distribution or the rollout in any way? What we are
Speaker 1: hearing from the CDC is that it hasn't significantly changed
Speaker 1: plans for distribution. It hasn't even really significantly changed their
Speaker 1: recommendations in terms of who should get the vaccine. What
Speaker 1: they are saying again is, you know, providers need to
Speaker 1: be prepared to treat these kinds of reactions. So something
Speaker 1: they've been saying this whole time is as people get
Speaker 1: these shots, they should be monitored I think for up
Speaker 1: to thirty minutes after receiving the shots, because that's when
Speaker 1: it's most likely that these reactions will emerge. And then
Speaker 1: that providers should be familiar with and have on hand
Speaker 1: these treatments like the EpiPen, these allergic reaction treatments so
Speaker 1: that they can do something if someone has one of
Speaker 1: these severe reactions, so they're prepared to treat patients. You know,
Speaker 1: you mentioned the flu and the flu shot. I mean,
Speaker 1: thus far do the numbers of people who have experienced
Speaker 1: an allergic reaction to either Fiser or Maderna's vaccine. How
Speaker 1: does that compare to the people who experienced, say, an
Speaker 1: allergic reaction to the annual flu shot. So so the
Speaker 1: latest information we have about this comes by way of
Speaker 1: the CDC, which put out a report um that was
Speaker 1: focused specifically on the Fiser vaccine because the Fiser vaccine
Speaker 1: was the first to get authorized in the US and
Speaker 1: it had the most uptake when the CDC was compiling
Speaker 1: this information, so recipients of the Fiser vaccine there was
Speaker 1: a rate of eleven point one per million doses administered,
Speaker 1: so eleven point one cases of anaphyl access per million
Speaker 1: doses administered. And then when you talk about the flu vaccine,
Speaker 1: the rates actually lower. Based on the studies we have,
Speaker 1: it's about one point three times per million doses of
Speaker 1: flu vaccine. So again eleven point one compared to one
Speaker 1: point three times per million doses. The rate appears to
Speaker 1: be higher with these COVID nineteen vaccines, but it's important
Speaker 1: to note and something the CDC said during a briefing
Speaker 1: the other day was, we have seen in some small
Speaker 1: studies that other vaccines have higher rates of anaphylaxis. So
Speaker 1: twelve to twenty five times per million doses, it's within
Speaker 1: the range of what's expected here. Again the CDC saying
Speaker 1: it's still quite rare that this is going to happen
Speaker 1: with this vaccine at this point, based on what we
Speaker 1: the information we have, and that it's still important to
Speaker 1: get these vaccines because you have to stack it up
Speaker 1: against the risk of getting a severe case of COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: which has obviously very significant consequences for patients. So in
Speaker 1: terms of populations who would be at risk for a
Speaker 1: severe allergic reaction, who would fall into that category. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so this is the key part of this, right um,
Speaker 1: And we don't have a perfect information, but what we
Speaker 1: did hear from the CDC recently was of these twenty
Speaker 1: one cases of severe allergic reactions with the Fiser shot,
Speaker 1: seventeen had a documented history of allergies and seven had
Speaker 1: a history of anaphylaxis. And by the way, allergies is
Speaker 1: that's pretty wide ranging, right, that's allergies to drugs, right,
Speaker 1: that's allergic reactions to food, to insects things. So, um,
Speaker 1: this is a lot a lot of people who who
Speaker 1: might be kind of starting to think about this and
Speaker 1: wonder what it means for them getting the shots. And
Speaker 1: what the CDC is saying is talk this over with
Speaker 1: your physician and make this decision. It's not something that
Speaker 1: I think every person is educated about as they experienced
Speaker 1: medical care, as they go to the doctor, as they
Speaker 1: venture out in the world. But it's something that's really
Speaker 1: important to know because you know, there's always a risk
Speaker 1: you're taking on and that doesn't mean you shouldn't get
Speaker 1: care or you shouldn't get a shot, for instance, but
Speaker 1: it is something that it's helpful to be educated about
Speaker 1: so you're properly informed us you go into any situation.
Speaker 1: That was Emma Court. And that's it for our show today.
Speaker 1: For coverage of the outbreak from one and twenty bureaus
Speaker 1: around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and
Speaker 1: if you like the show, please leave us a review
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Speaker 1: best way to help more listeners find our global reporting
Speaker 1: The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Tophra Foreheads, Magnus
Speaker 1: Hendrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported
Speaker 1: by Emma Court, original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors
Speaker 1: are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is blue
Speaker 1: Berg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening, h