California Health Official Orders 'Pause' On Moderna Vaccine Lot
SAN DIEGO, CA — On Sunday, a California health official said to stop using a particular batch of Moderna's coronavirus vaccine, as possible allergic reactions have occurred and are now under investigation.
In this public statement, Dr. Erica Pan, California's state epidemiologist, told healthcare providers to "pause" distributing batch 41L20A of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
"A higher-than-usual number of possible allergic reactions were reported with a specific lot of Moderna vaccine administered at one community vaccination clinic," said Dr. Pan. "Fewer than 10 individuals required medical attention over the span of 24 hours. Out of an extreme abundance of caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccine, we are recommending that providers use other available vaccine inventory and pause the administration of vaccines from Moderna Lot 041L20A until the investigation by the CDC, FDA, Moderna and the state is complete."
The nature of the allergic reactions was not given, nor was the exact name or location of the community clinic where the vaccine was given out.
However, San Diego County health officials confirmed last week that a half-dozen healthcare workers who were inoculated at the Petco Park vaccination center had suffered allergic reactions. With her public statement, Dr. Parks also shared this guide from the CDC on what to do should allergic anaphylaxis occur.
Those affected experienced a severe allergic reaction during the standard observation period after getting the injection, she said.
After the reactions were reported, the community clinic closed for a few hours this weekend and then switched to using another lot of Moderna vaccine.
More than 330,000 doses from this Moderna lot have been distributed to 287 providers across the state of California. The shipments arrived in California between Jan. 5 and 12. California has not been notified of any other cluster or individual events related to this lot, said Dr. Pan.
Moderna, the Centers for Disease Control and the Food & Drug Administration are all investigating.
No other significant issues with allergic reactions have occurred at any other location where the affected lot was distributed, according to the state of California. It was not clear which other locations received the affected doses.
The news comes as state and local officials clamor for more doses of the vaccine to expedite the shots. In Los Angeles County, a mass-vaccination site opened Friday at Dodger Stadium, but the operators of the site warned over the weekend that it could potentially run out of doses as early as Wednesday.
The City News Service contributed to this report.
This article originally appeared on the San Diego Patch
