The COVID-19 vaccination drive was halted at the Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville after four of their employees suffered reaction after getting the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. The program, which was halted on Friday night, is expected to resume on Sunday after a thorough internal review by the experts.
Since the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine was rolled out on Monday, it has been marred by a spate of controversies related to it side-effects. In the incident, out of the staff members who were administered the vaccine, one developed severe allergic reaction, while the remaining three suffered from mild reactions.
Authorities Suspected Contamination of the Vaccine
Fearing contamination of the batch of vaccines, the programme was halted by the hospital authorities on Friday night. However, with no additional case reported, the program will resume from Sunday.
Speaking to ABC, Dr. Robert Citronberg, Executive Medical Director of Infectious Disease and Prevention, said that the immediate concern was, if there was something wrong with that batch of vaccines?
"But after discussion with our health departments and also understanding that that same lot of vaccine was used at multiple other sites, both within and outside of advocate Aurora health, and no other serious concerns reported. We felt that there are really no concerns about the integrity of the vaccine," he said.
As a precautionary measure the medical center has increasing its post-vaccine evaluation period to 30 minutes for those receiving the vaccines at the designated spots.
Reactions to Vaccine Sparks Fears
In its bid to ease out fears related to the possible side-effects of the vaccine and its safety, the Lake County Health Department issued a statement, saying that they continue to closely monitor their safety and efficacy as COVID-19 vaccinations roll out across Lake County.
"Monitoring for adverse reactions is part of standard process with vaccines, and it is not unexpected to see some minor reactions occur, because some people respond to vaccinations differently than others," read the statement as per the outlet.
However, despite the assurances, the incident did spark a lot of fear amongst the netizens. "They had to stop temporarily in Libertyville Illinois today. A few people started having reactions to them, elevated heart rate and bp. There were a couple of other issues as well. My family isn't taking them TBH. It's an unproven vaccine and finding out there were Chinese spies," wrote a user.
"I insist: I prefer the successful prophylactic & therapeutic treatments instead of an #ExperimentalCovidVaccine!" wrote another.
