COVID-19: Health care workers in Alaska report allergic reaction after receiving vaccine shots of Pfizer

One health care worker in Alaska experienced a serious allergic reaction and was hospitalized after taking Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, state officials said Wednesday.

The worker, who is middle-aged and had no previous history of allergies, had stabilized with treatment but was being kept in a Juneau hospital to be monitored for another day.

The worker received the vaccine Tuesday at Bartlett Regional Hospital. Ten minutes after taking the vaccine she "showed signs of an anaphylactic reaction, with increased heartbeat, shortness of breath and skin rash and redness," according to Dr. Lindy Jones, the emergency room director at Bartlett.

"She was given epinephrine and Benadryl, admitted to the hospital, and put on an intravenous epinephrine drip. Her reaction was serious but not life threatening."

"During the whole time, she was still enthusiastic that she got the vaccine and the benefits that it would give her in the future," Jones said. The hospital's statement said she was "still encouraging her colleagues to get the vaccine."

A second health care worker, a male, suffered a less-serious allergic reaction to the vaccine at the same hospital on Wednesday.

Ten minutes after getting the injection, the man experienced "eye puffiness, lightheadedness, and scratchy throat," Bartlett hospital said in a statement. "His reaction was not considered anaphylaxis."

"He felt completely back to normal within an hour and was released," after treatment in the emergency department with epinephrine, Pepcid and Benadryl, according to the hospital, which noted: "He too does not want his experience to have a negative impact on his colleagues lining up for the vaccine."

The hospital said 144 staff members were vaccinated Wednesday of a total of nearly 400 who had requested it. Data on the two allergic reactions was being shared with the CDC.

The two Bartlett workers have been the country's only cases of allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine, according to Dr. Jay Butler, the CDC's deputy director for infectious diseases.