[News] Is the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine inadvisable for everyone with a history of allergies? Not all experts agree

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Given the report, this December 9, from the UK Medicines and Health Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), that anyone with a history of significant allergic reactions should not receive the vaccine against the new coronavirus created by the pharmaceutical company Pfizer, other entities are quick to clarify that the alarm should not be generalized.

The cautionary notice was issued for two cases of anaphylactic reactions associated with the administration of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The MHRA measures indicate that "anyone with a history of significant allergic reactions to vaccines, medicines or food (such as those who have to carry an adrenaline auto-injector at all hours) should not receive the BioNTech. As for the two people mentioned, they both recovered after receiving treatment. "

For its part, the Spanish Society of Allergology and Clinical Immunology (Seaic) ruled on this request: "It is not possible to generalize the avoidance of the administration of the vaccine to all those who have had serious reactions to drugs or foods," says the Seaic. "The allergic reactions that may arise from the vaccine will depend on the excipients that make it up and how the active part of the vaccine is generated."

Patients who have generated an allergic reaction to COVID-19 vaccines must undergo an allergological study to identify the substance that triggers that reaction. Until then, they believe, the alarm is not necessary for everyone who has had severe reactions to drugs or foods.

Each vaccine can be different, considers the Spanish organization, due to its development medium and its excipients. The Pfizer vaccine, they say, has the same contraindications for allergy sufferers as any other. "In other words," she specifies, "it is not recommended in people who have suffered previous allergic reactions to its components", which in this case would be PEG (polyethylene glycol).

The allergist doctor Pablo Torres explains that this will cause many allergic patients in Ecuador and in the world to be suspicious of the warning against the use of the Pfizer vaccine in them. "This statement has been made very quickly, without yet identifying the cause that is producing these allergic reactions," he believes. "Thousands of people have already been vaccinated with this dose, which has been highly effective. Only two cases of allergic reaction have been reported so far. Any drug can produce it."

In addition, Torres says, it is necessary to identify whether the reaction was allergic or non-allergic. "It is not clear in the Pfizer statement if it was the former. So I think it was a bit hasty to make that statement."

Both people, he recalls, had a history of severe allergy. "But patients with respiratory allergies such as rhinitis and allergic asthma would not have any contraindication to receiving the vaccine. Neither would those with food allergies, since there is no protein component on the label of the Pfizer vaccine."

Another point: it cannot be argued that every patient with severe allergic reactions is no longer a candidate for the vaccine. "Apparently, there is the PEG (polyethylene glycol) component, which in previous drugs has produced anaphylaxis." Those who have had these severe reactions from the use of cosmetics or medications for constipation are the only ones who should be careful when using the vaccine, it is the opinion of the doctor, who is concerned that people with mild and moderate allergies (rhinitis , asthma, atopic dermatitis, food allergies) assume they will not be able to get vaccinated against COVID-19. "They must be evaluated by a specialist allergist so that they are guided in a better way."