100 high-risk allergy patients to get COVID-19 vaccine at Sheba Friday

• Published date: 07 January 2021
• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
• Date: 07 January 2021

Until now, people with severe allergies were turned away from health clinics because they could have serious reactions to receiving a coronavirus vaccine, including going into anaphylactic shock that can be deadly if not treated right away.

According to Prof. Nancy Agmon-Levin, head of the Clinical Immunology, Angioedema and Allergy Unit, Lupus and Autoimmune Diseases Clinic at Sheba, there are so far more allergic reactions to coronavirus vaccines than traditional vaccines. She said that on average, one in a million experience allergic reactions to being vaccinated, but with these new coronavirus vaccines that percentage is more like one in 100,000.

"This has created a lot of buzz and worry by many patients, so we decided to help them," she said.

"There have been quite a few reactions to the vaccine," she said, noting that this includes 21 known cases of anaphylactic shock and many more "immediate reactions" – allergy-related side effects that occur within 10 minutes to four hours after inoculation.

In Israel, she said there have been at last count 63 allergic reactions out of 1,590,000 people vaccinated. Two people went into anaphylactic shock.

"But many patients who are immunized do not report their immediate reactions," she said, so there could be many more.

Immediate reactions include shortness of breath, swelling of the tongue, lips or throat, rashes or other minor symptoms that are a direct result of an allergy to the vaccine. She said that doctors still do not know exactly what is causing allergic reactions.

"We speculate that it is a component of the lipid layer that covers the vaccine and includes a component called polyethylene glycols or PEGs that we know can cause allergic reactions," Agmon-Levin said. "But this is just an educated guess."

PEGs are hydrophilic polymers that can be found in everyday products such as foods, cosmetics and medications, according to the National Institutes of Health.

The pilot program will both address people who have a history of going into anaphylactic shock or who have had...