A Canadian Health Official Says 2 People Had An Allergic Reaction To The COVID-19 Vaccine

A Canadian health official said that Canada's newest COVID-19 vaccine resulted in two major allergic reactions during the trial stage.

In a press conference Wednesday, the Senior Medical Advisor for Health Canada, Dr. Supriya Sharma, said she is not worried by the news as rates of allergic reactions remained relatively low.

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2 Major allergic reactions related to the COVID-19 vaccine trial

The conversation comes just after the U.K. first reported seeing some allergic reactions related to the COVID-19 vaccine in their rollout, according to CNN.

This news prompted Canada to take a look at its upcoming vaccine implementation since the Pfizer vaccine was the culprit for the allergies in the U.K. and Canada ordered enough to last everyone many rounds of the vaccine. 

Sharma said that Canada is working closely with U.K. counterparts in order to get a better understanding of what transpired. 

Since Canada has not yet started handing out the vaccine we can only really go from what occurred during our clinical trials.

To this, Sharma said that out of the close to 44,000 people who participated in the early stages of the vaccine, only two ended up with some serious allergic reactions.

"We know that with all vaccines there is a risk of allergic reaction," she said. "That’s why when people receive vaccines we ask that they remain in the area that they get the vaccine for a period of time, usually 15 to 20 minutes, to be monitored."

She also added that due to an individual introducing something new into the body, getting a reaction from it is possible, even if it's super rare in this case.

"We’re still in the phase of looking at the two cases, working with our international counterparts and if there’s any change in the way the vaccine should be used we will make that publicly available share that with everyone before the first person gets vaccinated in Canada," she said.