Hospital in Chicago suburb is forced to halt COVID-19 vaccinations after four employees have adverse reaction to the shots

December 21, 2020 in News by RBN Staff

source:  dailymail.uk

  • Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville stopped the vaccinations on Friday and will resume them on Sunday
  • The unidentified employees experienced reactions that included tingling and elevated heart rate just moments after taking the vaccine 
  • While three of the staff are recovering at home a fourth is receiving additional treatment 

A medical facility in Illinois temporarily stopped COVID-19 vaccinations after four healthcare workers experienced adverse reactions to the shots.

Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville stopped the vaccinations on Friday and will resume them on Sunday.

The unidentified employees experienced reactions that included tingling and elevated heart rate just moments after taking the vaccine, ABC 7 reports.

Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville stopped the vaccinations on Friday and will resume them on Sunday

Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville stopped the vaccinations on Friday and will resume them on Sunday

The unidentified employees experienced reactions that included tingling and elevated heart rate just moments after taking the vaccine. A worker in Indiana receives the vaccine

The unidentified employees experienced reactions that included tingling and elevated heart rate just moments after taking the vaccine. A worker in Indiana receives the vaccine

‘These four team members represent fewer than 0.15% of the approximately 3,000 who have so far received vaccinations across Advocate Aurora Health,’ a statement reads.

While three of the staff are recovering at home a fourth is receiving additional treatment.

Advocate shared that it would be using the time to help determine what may have caused the reactions.

The vaccinations are still taking place at the eight other Advocate Aurora Health locations in Illinois and in the three locations in Wisconsin.

WHAT ARE THE KNOWN SIDE EFFECTS OF THE PFIZER VACCINE?

UK medicines regulator advised that anyone who has a history of ‘significant’ allergic reactions to medicines, food or vaccines should not get the Pfizer coronavirus jab.

Dr June Raine, the chief executive of the MHRA, told Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee that this was not identified in the trials.

‘We know from very extensive clinical trials that this wasn’t a feature,’ she said.

Allergic reactions to the vaccine are ‘very rare’, according to the trials involving more than 40,000 people.

Pfizer found a ‘very small number’ during its phase three clinical studies, which found 137 out of 19,000 people. This compared to a comparable 111 in a group of the same size who didn’t get the vaccine.

They also identified 12 possible side-effects from the vaccine, with seven identified as ‘very common’ meaning they are likely to affect more than one in ten people. Below are the known side effects.

The patient safety leaflet for the vaccine cautions that anyone with an allergy to any of the active substances in the vaccine should not receive the jab.

It adds: ‘Signs of an allergic reaction may include itchy skin rash, shortness of breath and swelling of the face or tongue.’

Allergic reactions to the vaccine are:

Very common (Likely to affect more than one in ten people)

  • Pain at injection site
  • Tiredness
  • Muscle pain
  • Chills
  • Joint pain
  • Fever
  • Headache 

Common (Likely to affect up to one in ten people)

  • Injection site swelling
  • Redness at injection site
  • Nausea 

Uncommon (May affect one in 100 people)

  • Enlarged lymph nodes
  • Feeling unwell