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Maine Medical Center Worker Has Anaphylactic Reaction To COVID-19 Shot

Charles Rex Arbogast
/
Associated Press
A nurse at Saint Anthony Hospital draws a dose Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2020, of the first of the two Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccinations for a hospital worker at the facility in Chicago.

A health worker at Maine Medical Center experienced an anaphylactic reaction after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah says the worker experienced discomfort about 20 minutes after getting the shot.

“When those signs and symptoms became concerning, the individual was given appropriate medical care and treatment. The appropriate systems were put into place to both spot that, manage it, and treat it,” he says.

Shah says reactions to the Pfizer vaccine are not unheard of. But they have been rare among the 800,000 doses administered across the U.S.