A healthcare worker in Alaska suffered a severe allergic reaction after receiving Pfzier's coronavirus vaccine and had to be hospitalized. The middle-aged woman, who has not been identified, suffered an anaphylactic reaction about ten minutes after she was vaccinated.
She began to suffer from shortness of breath and flushing and was given a Benadryl to relieve the symptoms. When that did not work, taken to the hospital, where she was given epinephrine, which cleared up her symptoms within minutes. Officials said she is in stable condition and should be released from the hospital on Wednesday (December 16) night.
"She is healthy, and she is doing well," Dr. Lindy Jones, the emergency department medical director at the hospital, said.
The woman did not have a prior history of allergies and will not be given the second dose of the vaccine.
"We expected that a side effect like this could occur after reports of anaphylaxis were made in England after people there received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine," said Alaska's Chief Medical Officer Dr. Anne Zink. "All sites that are approved to provide vaccinations in Alaska must have medications on hand to deal with an allergic reaction, and that was the case in Juneau."
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