Anaphylaxis rates associated with COVID-19 vaccines are comparable to those of other vaccines

Helena C Maltezou, Cleo Anastassopoulou, Sophia Hatziantoniou, Gregory A Poland, Athanasios Tsakris, Helena C Maltezou, Cleo Anastassopoulou, Sophia Hatziantoniou, Gregory A Poland, Athanasios Tsakris

Abstract

We retrieved data on 8940 anaphylaxis cases post-COVID-19 vaccination from the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and the European EudraVigilance from week 52/2020 through week 31/2021 and compared them with those of other vaccines. Overall, 837,830,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses were delivered in the US and Europe during the study period, for which the vaccine name was known. The mean anaphylaxis rate was estimated at 10.67 cases per 106 doses of COVID-19 vaccines (range: 7.99-19.39 cases per 106 doses depending on the vaccine). COVID-19 vaccines ranked fifth in reported anaphylaxis rates, behind rabies, tick-borne encephalitis, measles-mumps-rubella-varicella, and human papillomavirus vaccines (70.77, 20, 19.8, and 13.65 cases per 106 vaccine doses, respectively). COVID-19 vaccines are within the range of anaphylaxis rates reported across several common vaccines in these two passive reporting systems. These data should be communicated to reassure the general population about the safety profile of COVID-19 vaccines.

Keywords: Allergy; Anaphylaxis; COVID-19; EudraVigilance; Hypersensitivity; VAERS; Vaccine.

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Mean anaphylaxis rates associated with licensed COVID-19 vaccines* compared to other vaccines**. COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; TBE: tick-born encephalitis; MMRV: measles-mumps-rubella-varicella; HPV: human papilloma virus; COVID-19: coronavirus disease 2019; A/H1N1: monovalent influenza pandemic A/H1N1; MCV4: tetravalent meningococcus conjugate vaccine; HAV: hepatitis A virus; MMR: measles-mumps-rubella; DTaP: diphtheria tetanus acellular pertussis; PSV23: 23-valent pneumococcus polysaccharide vaccine; HBV: hepatitis B virus; JE: Japanese encephalitis; Hib: Haemophilus influenzae; PCV13: 13-valent pneumococcus conjugate vaccine *estimated from VAERS and EudraVigilance **retrieved from McNeil et al. and Sampath et al. .

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Source: PubMed

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