Doc Who Got COVID Vaccination Dies; Pfizer Says 'No Connection'

Eric Kiefer
Updated ·4 min read

LIVINGSTON, NJ — Authorities are probing the death of a New Jersey-trained doctor who died weeks after getting the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 virus vaccine. According to Pfizer, the company doesn’t believe that there is any direct connection between the vaccine and his death.

Gregory Michael, 56, who completed his residency at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, received a first dose of the vaccine on Dec. 18. He died on Monday in Florida, where he practiced and was born, after suffering a hemorrhagic stroke that apparently resulted from a lack of blood platelets, USA Today reported.

In a social media post, Michael’s wife said the “very healthy” 56-year-old found a “strong set of petechiae” on his feet and hands three days after getting his first dose of the vaccine.

“He was a pro-vaccine advocate … that is why he got it himself,” she said, alleging that the vaccine was connected to his death.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner said that Michael’s death has not definitively been linked to the vaccine, although that is among the possibilities being explored. The investigation is being conducted in cooperation with the Florida Department of Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pfizer provided CNN a statement about Michael’s death, writing:

“Pfizer and BioNTech are aware of the death of a healthcare professional 16 days after receiving a first dose of the vaccine. It is a highly unusual clinical case of severe thrombocytopenia, a condition that decreases the body's ability to clot blood and stop internal bleeding … We are actively investigating this case, but we don't believe at this time that there is any direct connection to the vaccine … There have been no related safety signals identified in our clinical trials, the post-marketing experience thus far or with the mRNA vaccine platform. To date, millions of people have been vaccinated and we are closely monitoring all adverse events in individuals receiving our vaccine. It is important to note that serious adverse events, including deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine are unfortunately likely to occur at a similar rate as they would in the general population.”

According to his website, Michael received his M.D. from St. George's University. He completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Saint Barnabas Medical Center in Livingston, and was a Galloway Fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. He practiced at Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach.

Here’s what the CDC says about the two available COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna:

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Emergency Use Authorizations (EUA) for two COVID-19 vaccines which have been shown to be safe and effective as determined by data from the manufacturers and findings from large clinical trials. These data demonstrate that the known and potential benefits of this vaccine outweigh the known and potential harms of becoming infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19).”

See the CDC’s product information for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine here.

As of Wednesday, more than 17.2 million total doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been distributed in the U.S. More than 5.3 million people have received their first dose, the CDC states.

According to the CDC, during Dec. 14 to 23, after the administration of 1.89 million first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, reports of 4,393 (0.2 percent) “adverse events” were submitted to the VAERS, a national passive surveillance system jointly operated by the CDC and FDA.

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This article originally appeared on the Livingston Patch