Following reports of allergic reactions to new COVID-19 vaccines, a Turkish doctor said that people who have allergies should receive vaccines at a hospital instead of at a primary health care center.
In a written statement, the head of the Turkish National Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Dr. Bülent Şekerel said severe allergic reactions to vaccines are extremely rare and anaphylaxis occurs in about 1.3 out of 1 million doses of vaccine.
The allergic risk of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s mRNA vaccines is 11 in 1 million, a tenfold higher risk compared with routine vaccines, Şekerel said.
“But this difference is not related to what the vaccine was made of, namely the coronavirus, rather the results from a new technique in producing the vaccines,” he noted.
Şekerel explained that this potential higher risk with mRNA vaccines results from a component of the vaccine called polyethylene glycol, or PEG.
Reports of allergic reactions to the new mRNA vaccines have surfaced in Europe and the U.S. California’s state epidemiologist in January urged a halt to a certain lot of Moderna vaccines in the state because some people received medical treatment for possible severe allergic reactions after getting vaccinated.
