Walgreens Chief Medical Officer Weighs in After Reports of Allergic Reactions To COVID-19 Vaccine in UK

Following reports of two people suffering serious reactions after getting Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine in the U.K., a Walgreens official is weighing in on the company’s plans.

There were reports this week of two NHS staffers, who have significant allergies, reacted after getting Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine — they have since recovered following treatment.

In response, Britain’s Medical and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency advised people who have significant allergic reactions to a vaccine, food or medicine, to not get the vaccine yet. The reports of the two reactions is being investigated and Pfizer/BioNTech are working with the investigators, according to the Associated Press.

Walgreens Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Ban touched on the reports during an interview Friday on NBC News.

“What I would say is that there were touchpoints along the way to make sure that not only that the vaccine was effective, but more importantly, that it’s safe,” Ban said.

Ban went on to note that there are side-effects to the COVID-19 vaccine, such as a headache or a fever. He added that those side-effects are “treatable with Tylenol” and will last a day or two.

He said that a person’s body may “get symptoms” of the virus after getting the vaccine, but “that’s because your body is reacting… it’s being tricked into thinking that it actually has the virus, it very quickly figures out that it doesn’t, but you may manifest symptoms.”

The Walgreens chief medical officer then made a note, “We expect these types of reactions, but we also train our pharmacists so that if there is a severe reaction we have protocols in place, so that they know how to respond.”

“If there are any problems, we handle it immediately,” Ban added.