*sigh*Argh! Angry, Confused, Scared.

[Merlin]

Another thing I'd like to point out: I've heard of 2 people who have gotten the Pfizer Covid vaccine who went into Anaphylactic shock immediately.  So in your world, we should take this seriously, and NOBODY should get the vaccines - because saving even 1 life is worth it.  But no, people have determined that they are going to take the risk and get a vaccine that they could die from.  It's not that they're not taking the adverse reaction seriously, but they've decided that it's worth the risk to take it.

As far as I know, there have been four people in the UK and two people in the US (in Alaska) who have had serious allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine. In this case the allergy is probably not being caused by the vaccine but the polyethylene glycol that is used as a stabilizing agent in the vaccine. People having allergic reactions to a vaccine are not unheard of but uncommon. Serious allergic reactions are pretty rare. However, hospitals have epinephrine on hand specifically for things like this. Treating an allergic reaction is well understood and far easier than treating the effects of Covid. In one case, the allergic reaction was bad enough that they needed an epinephrine drip overnight, but I doubt that is going to be a common reaction. But that is one hospital bed for 12 hours vs. being intubated or in critical care for weeks or months.

From what I've read, based on these incidents the council responsible for administering the vaccine in the US has revised their vaccination protocol to require that people wait around for 20-30 minutes after the first shot to observe them for allergic reactions and give them epinephrine if needed.

I'm not that worried about the allergic reaction. We knew to expect that since it happens with any vaccine. I'm more concerned about other factors and demographics that may not have been taken into account during such a limited phase 3 trial.

Personally, I am still planning to wait a while to see how things go across a broad sample of people before my family and I take the vaccine. It will probably be at least 3-6 months before we have the option to get the vaccine anyway given vaccine supplies and the current plan to focus on healthcare workers and the highest risk people first. So it seems like we'll have an ample opportunity to see how this pans out.

We still have like 6 more vaccines that are undergoing trials right now. So who knows how those will factor in.