courtesy: livelaw.in
A government panel studying the side effects of COVID-19 vaccine has confirmed its first death due to anaphylaxis following vaccination.
According to a report by the National AEFI Committee, a 68-year-old man died due to anaphylaxis after being vaccinated on March 8, 2021. Anaphylaxis is a severe allergic reaction.
The causality assessment of 31 reported Serious Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) cases following COVID-19 vaccination was carried out by the panel.
Chairperson of National AEFI Committee, Dr. N.K Arora said that this was the first death linked to COVID-19 vaccination due to anaphylaxis. It re-emphasised for the need of waiting 30 minutes at the inoculation centre after receiving the jab. Most of the anaphylactic reactions occur during this period and prompt treatment prevents death.
The Committee has examined five such cases that took place on February 5, eight cases on March 9, and 18 cases on March 31. As per the data in the first week of April, the reporting rate was 2.7 deaths per million vaccine doses administered and 4.8 hospitalisations per million vaccine doses administered.
The panel though mentioned that the mere reporting of deaths and hospitalisations as serious adverse events does not automatically mean that the events had been caused due to the vaccines.
In the government panel report it had been said that of the 31 casually assessed cases, 18 were classified as having inconsistent casual association to vaccination, 7 were found to be vaccine product related, 1 was anxiety related reaction and 2 cases were found to be unclassifiable.
However the panel said that the benefits of the vaccination were overwhelmingly greater than the small risk of harm, and as a measure of utmost precaution, all emerging signals of harm are being constantly tracked and reviewed periodically.