The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is administered to a personal-support worker at the Ottawa Hospital, on Dec. 15, 2020, in Ottawa.
Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
People with common allergies, such as to food, pollen or pets, are no more likely than the rest of the population to have a rare allergic reaction to the COVID-19 vaccine, according to experts.
Two U.S. health care workers had allergic reactions – one of them a serious reaction – after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week, CBS News reported on Thursday. In Britain, two National Health Services workers had severe allergic reactions after receiving the vaccine earlier this month.
Health Canada has recommended that anyone who is allergic to any of the ingredients should not receive the vaccine. It also advised that anyone who has had a serious allergic reaction to another vaccine, drug or food to talk to their health professional beforehand.
The likelihood of having an allergic reaction to any of the components of the vaccine, however, is extremely rare, said Tim Vander Leek, president of the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
“If anybody thinks that they may have a reason not to receive a vaccine like the Pfizer vaccine, I think it’s very important that they discuss that with their health care provider, as opposed to just avoiding it,” he said.
What caused the allergic reactions in the healthcare workers?
The answer is yet unknown. The allergen, or the substance that triggered the allergic reaction, in the two British cases is still under investigation, according to an e-mail from Britain’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA).
“One theory is that it may have been the Polyethylene glycol (PEG), but this is not yet proven,” it said.
According to the BBC, both individuals have a history of serious allergies and both were reportedly recovering well the day after receiving the vaccine.
In the U.S. cases, both of which occurred at the same hospital in Juneau, Alaska, one male worker experienced eye puffiness, light-headedness and a scratchy throat minutes after receiving the vaccine on Wednesday, while a female worker showed signs of an anaphylactic reaction on Tuesday, including increased heart rate, shortness of breath, and a skin rash, CBS News reported. Both were treated, and their reactions were not life-threatening. The specific allergen was not reported.
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What is polyethylene glycol?
Polyethylene glycol is a compound used in some medicines, cosmetics and foods, the MHRA said. This ingredient has been identified by Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization as a potential allergen in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
It is unknown exactly how many people are allergic to PEG, since these allergies may not always be recognized, but research suggests it is extremely rare, Dr. Vander Leek said. For example, he noted in one review of all available medical literature between 1977 and 2016, only 37 cases of allergies to PEG were reported.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the Canadian Society of Allergy and Clinical Immunology said PEG is found in multiple products that are tolerated safely on a daily basis by many individuals in Canada.
Like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which is expected to receive Health Canada approval soon, also contains PEG, so it is likely that the same recommendations – to not receive that vaccine if people have a known allergy to PEG or any other of the vaccine’s ingredients – will apply, Dr. Vander Leek said. However, he added, it is important to note that there are many different types of PEG molecules, and the molecules listed as ingredients in these two vaccines are different. Individuals with an allergy to one type of PEG may be able to tolerate another form of it, he said, noting this underscores the importance of consulting a health care provider.
What other ingredients are in the vaccine?
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The medicinal ingredient in the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is mRNA. Besides PEG, other non-medical ingredients are as follows: ALC-0315 = ((4-hydroxybutyl)azanediyl)bis(hexane-6,1-diyl)bis(2-hexyldecanoate), 1,2-Distearoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine, cholesterol, dibasic sodium phosphate dihydrate, monobasic potassium phosphate, potassium chloride, sodium chloride, sucrose, and water for injection.
None of these other ingredients has been identified as a likely cause of allergy, Dr. Vander Leek said.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and some of the candidate COVID-19 vaccines have common reported side effects, including fevers and aches. How do you distinguish an allergic reaction from an expected side effect?
Common responses to vaccines, which can last a couple days to a week or two, are the result of your immune system getting activated, said Zainab Abdurrahman, a clinical immunologist and allergist and assistant clinical professor (adjunct) of pediatrics at McMaster University. A rise in body temperature, redness and swelling around the injection site, and a general sense of tiredness or feeling under the weather are all part of the immune system’s response to try to fight off and stop the spread of infection from what it perceives as a pathogen, Dr. Abdurrahman said.
“Those are all normal things that your body does when it is trying to respond to a threat. And we want it to think what you’re getting in the vaccine is a threat,” so that it can recognize and respond to the actual pathogen, she said.
An allergic reaction, by contrast, is not expected and occurs typically within the first few minutes to an hour of receiving a vaccine, Dr. Abdurrahman said.
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This can involve rashes, breathing problems, swelling and a decrease in blood pressure.
Does having allergies to one substance make you more likely to be allergic to another?
People with asthma, for example, have a higher risk of environmental allergies, Dr. Abdurrahman said, but vaccine allergies are extremely rare. The chances of having anaphylaxis to a vaccine is about one in a million.
“It’s not so much that, [for example], having a peanut allergy is going to increase your risk of having a vaccine allergy; we don’t really see that,” she said.
While no COVID-19 vaccine is approved for children yet, there are trials underway to test them in adolescents. Are children more susceptible to allergies than adults?
There’s no reason to assume children will be more likely to have allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Abdurrahman said.
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Since children do typically experience more redness and fevers when they get other kinds of vaccines than adults, she says she expects it may be more common for them to have expected side effects, like localized pain, redness, swelling and high temperature. Still, there’s no knowing which vaccine children may eventually receive.
What are the options for people who have known allergies to the vaccine ingredients?
It may be possible for them to choose another vaccine that does not have the component to which they are allergic,when others become available, Dr. Vander Leek said. Alternatively, he said, there may be potential ways of desensitizing the body so that they can tolerate receiving it.
Though he noted it is yet unknown whether this could apply to the COVID-19 vaccine, desensitization, which involves gradually building up the dose from an extremely small amount, is used routinely when patients need to take life-saving medications to which they are allergic.
The initial COVID-19 vaccinations in Canada and around the world raise questions about how people react to the shot, how pregnant women should approach it and how far away herd immunity may be. Globe health reporter Kelly Grant and science reporter Ivan Semeniuk discuss the answers.The Globe and Mail
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MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Dollarama Inc.’s food aisles may have expanded far beyond sweet treats or piles of gum by the checkout counter in recent years, but its chief executive maintains his company is “not in the grocery business,” even if it’s keeping an eye on the sector.
“It’s just one small part of our store,” Neil Rossy told analysts on a Wednesday call, where he was questioned about the company’s food merchandise and rivals playing in the same space.
“We will keep an eye on all retailers — like all retailers keep an eye on us — to make sure that we’re competitive and we understand what’s out there.”
Over the last decade and as consumers have more recently sought deals, Dollarama’s food merchandise has expanded to include bread and pantry staples like cereal, rice and pasta sold at prices on par or below supermarkets.
However, the competition in the discount segment of the market Dollarama operates in intensified recently when the country’s biggest grocery chain began piloting a new ultra-discount store.
The No Name stores being tested by Loblaw Cos. Ltd. in Windsor, St. Catharines and Brockville, Ont., are billed as 20 per cent cheaper than discount retail competitors including No Frills. The grocery giant is able to offer such cost savings by relying on a smaller store footprint, fewer chilled products and a hearty range of No Name merchandise.
Though Rossy brushed off notions that his company is a supermarket challenger, grocers aren’t off his radar.
“All retailers in Canada are realistic about the fact that everyone is everyone’s competition on any given item or category,” he said.
Rossy declined to reveal how much of the chain’s sales would overlap with Loblaw or the food category, arguing the vast variety of items Dollarama sells is its strength rather than its grocery products alone.
“What makes Dollarama Dollarama is a very wide assortment of different departments that somewhat represent the old five-and-dime local convenience store,” he said.
The breadth of Dollarama’s offerings helped carry the company to a second-quarter profit of $285.9 million, up from $245.8 million in the same quarter last year as its sales rose 7.4 per cent.
The retailer said Wednesday the profit amounted to $1.02 per diluted share for the 13-week period ended July 28, up from 86 cents per diluted share a year earlier.
The period the quarter covers includes the start of summer, when Rossy said the weather was “terrible.”
“The weather got slightly better towards the end of the summer and our sales certainly increased, but not enough to make up for the season’s horrible start,” he said.
Sales totalled $1.56 billion for the quarter, up from $1.46 billion in the same quarter last year.
Comparable store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased 4.7 per cent, while the average transaction was down2.2 per cent and traffic was up seven per cent, RBC analyst Irene Nattel pointed out.
She told investors in a note that the numbers reflect “solid demand as cautious consumers focus on core consumables and everyday essentials.”
Analysts have attributed such behaviour to interest rates that have been slow to drop and high prices of key consumer goods, which are weighing on household budgets.
To cope, many Canadians have spent more time seeking deals, trading down to more affordable brands and forgoing small luxuries they would treat themselves to in better economic times.
“When people feel squeezed, they tend to shy away from discretionary, focus on the basics,” Rossy said. “When people are feeling good about their wallet, they tend to be more lax about the basics and more willing to spend on discretionary.”
The current economic situation has drawn in not just the average Canadian looking to save a buck or two, but also wealthier consumers.
“When the entire economy is feeling slightly squeezed, we get more consumers who might not have to or want to shop at a Dollarama generally or who enjoy shopping at a Dollarama but have the luxury of not having to worry about the price in some other store that they happen to be standing in that has those goods,” Rossy said.
“Well, when times are tougher, they’ll consider the extra five minutes to go to the store next door.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
TORONTO – The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has ordered TD Bank Group to pay US$28 million for repeatedly sharing inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.
The agency says TD has to pay US$7.76 million in total to tens of thousands of victims of its illegal actions, along with a US$20 million civil penalty.
It says TD shared information that contained systemic errors about credit card and bank deposit accounts to consumer reporting companies, which can include credit reports as well as screening reports for tenants and employees and other background checks.
CFPB director Rohit Chopra says in a statement that TD threatened the consumer reports of customers with fraudulent information then “barely lifted a finger to fix it,” and that regulators will need to “focus major attention” on TD Bank to change its course.
TD says in a statement it self-identified these issues and proactively worked to improve its practices, and that it is committed to delivering on its responsibilities to its customers.
The bank also faces scrutiny in the U.S. over its anti-money laundering program where it expects to pay more than US$3 billion in monetary penalties to resolve.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 11, 2024.
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