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A medical worker in the British city of Coventry holds up the COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by Pfizer and BioNTech on Dec. 8. (Reuters/Yonhap News)

British pharmaceutical regulators are advising that people with a history of serious allergic reactions to foods or vaccines and other medicines should not be administered the COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.

June Raine, chief executive of the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), was quoted by a Reuters report on Dec. 10 as saying that “any person with a history of anaphylaxis to a vaccine, medicine or food should not receive the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine.”

Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction in which contact with even extremely small doses of a particular substance such as a vaccine or food item results in symptoms such as rashes and difficulty breathing. Two staffers under the UK’s National Health Service (NHS) showed strong allergic reactions after being administered the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 8. The employees in question had been severely vulnerable to allergies before and carried emergency treatments with them at all times. While they presented an anaphylactic reaction after receiving the vaccine, they are currently recovering, The Guardian reported.

According to a Dec. 10 report drafted by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) based on information provided by Pfizer, the allergic reaction rate for the group administered the vaccine was 0.63%, or slightly higher than the 0.51% for the group receiving a placebo. But CNN reported that Pfizer excluded people with histories of anaphylaxis and other severe allergic reactions from its clinical trials altogether.

In US clinical trials, transient cases of Bell’s palsy were observed in four out of 21,720 people given the Pfizer vaccine. But US public health authorities responded positively to the vaccine, noting that this incidence of facial paralysis fell below the incidence rate relative to the population. US Health Secretary Alex Azar said on Dec. 9 that the FDA would be able to grant approval for emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine by this weekend.

Also on Dec. 9, the Canadian government became the third to approve emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine, after the UK and Bahrain. For now, Canada is recommending the vaccine only be administered to those 16 years of age and older and not be given to anyone with a history of allergic reactions.

By Cho Ki-weon, staff reporter

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