BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – Doctors in Western New York urge the public not to overreact to news overseas of adverse reactions to the Pfizer vaccine.
Officials in the United Kingdom are investigating two incidents that happened on the first day of the country's mass vaccination program. Two staff members from the National Health Service, both of whom have a history of allergies, had an unspecified reaction, though are recovering.
Government officials in the UK are warning anyone who has a history of serious allergic reactions not to take the vaccine.
"On average, if you look at the United States information and all of our data, we have an average of one case of severe reaction to vaccines per 1 million people," Dr. Roland Honeine, an allergist at the Buffalo Medical Group, said. "Therefore, it's an extremely rare reaction. Most reactions to vaccines occur from preservatives. The vaccine that is currently being given at the UK does not have any preservatives in it, therefore, it is unlikely to cause any severe allergic reactions."
Honeine said it appears the two people who had the reaction had what is known as an anaphylactic reaction, which requires the use of an auto-injector like EpiPen. He said we should take this data with a grain of salt because there were no severe reactions among the 43,000 people tested in clinical trials.
"Right now I trust the system and I trust what the UK is doing and I recommend everyone take a deep breath in and look at the data," Honeine said. "See what we're doing as far as research. I don't have any grave concerns at this time."
Honeine said it's important that people follow guidelines recommended by the Centers for Disease Control. Dr. Joseph Chow, President of WNY Immediate Care, and Dr. Thomas Russo, Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Jacobs School of Medicine, also agree that there's no need for the public to panic and to follow the guidance from the federal agency.
"With all vaccines, there are side effects or potential side effects," Chow said. "The overwhelming of these side effects are similar to other vaccines we've talked about before where you can get some localized tenderness and redness in the arm. You may get some fatigue or a low-grade fever. What's important to know about these two serious shots is that after the second shot you may see an increase in incidents of these side effects. So just be aware of those."
Anyone with serious allergic reactions should contact their doctor about how to receive the vaccine. More specifically, they should receive the vaccine at a facility that has resuscitative capabilities.
Officials in New York are worried about the skepticism of the public at large. Governor Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday said it will be important to provide public education about the importance of this vaccine because nearly 50 percent of the public polled do not trust the vaccine.
"It's up to us as a medical community to communicate to the public based on the data that we've seen to date how effective this vaccine is and to help us get out of this mess and how safe it is," Russo said. "This vaccine has, so far, some of the best safety and efficacy characteristics of many vaccines we've seen and are routinely administered. We need to get that message across to the public."
Russo echoed Chow in that many people, if not most, will have some type of side effect like pain or reddening.
"That's the body's natural response and suggests the vaccine is actually working and doing what it's supposed to do," he said. "Some people, probably a significant minority, particularly with the second shot, are going to have flu-like symptoms, maybe fatigue, a headache, fevers. I think the key thing is that these type of reactions, which are expected, will last no more than a day or so…They're not serious."
Pfizer and BioNTech said they were working with investigators "to better understand each case and its causes.''
