People with anaphylaxis should not take Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines –UK medicine regulator

The United Kingdom’s medicine regulator has warned that people with a history of anaphylaxis to a medicine or food should not risk taking a shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.

This was revealed in a statement issued on Wednesday by June Raine, chief executive of the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), thus expanding his guidance on an earlier allergy warning about the Covid-19 vaccine.

Anaphylaxis is an abnormal sensitivity to proteins.

“Any person with a history of anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine or food should not receive the Pfizer BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine,” June said.

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“A second dose should not be given to anyone who has experienced anaphylaxis following administration of the first dose of this vaccine,” he added.

“Most people will not get anaphylaxis and the benefits in protecting people against Covid-19 outweigh the risks,” June stressed.

“You can be completely confident that this vaccine has met the MHRA’s robust standards of safety, quality and effectiveness. The safety data has also been critically assessed by the government’s independent advisory body, the Commission on Human Medicines. No vaccine would be approved unless it meets these stringent standards – on that you can be sure.”

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