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Earlier this week, the nearly 91-year-old Margaret Keenan became the first person to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine outside a clinical trial.

Her name will go down in history, although it’s the name of the second person to get the jab, William Shakespeare, that will probably be most remembered.

The fact that a vaccine is being rolled out in the UK is great news, but there have been two isolated cases that have led to warnings being issued.

The BBC reports:

People with a history of significant allergic reactions should not have the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid jab, regulators say.

It came after two NHS workers had allergic reactions on Tuesday.

The advice applies to those who have had reactions to medicines, food or vaccines, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency said…

They are understood to have had an anaphylactoid reaction, which tends to involve a skin rash, breathlessness and sometimes a drop in blood pressure. This is not the same as anaphylaxis which can be fatal.

We live in a time where so many people are apprehensive with regards to taking a vaccine, for reasons that are often completely ridiculous (Bill Gates doesn’t want to track and control you, darling).

Describing the two NHS workers’ reactions, Professor Stephen Powis, medical director for the NHS in England, said this was “common with new vaccines”.

In all, several thousand people received the vaccine on Tuesday in hospitals and clinics across the UK:

Prof Peter Openshaw, an expert in immunology at Imperial College London, said: “The fact that we know so soon about these two allergic reactions and that the regulator has acted on this to issue precautionary advice shows that this monitoring system is working well.”

The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) advised that vaccines “should only be carried out in facilities where resuscitation measures are available”, which is exactly why they’re being administered in hospitals and clinics

Vaccine expert Dr. Paul Offit spoke with CNN:

“Certainly, vaccines can cause severe allergic reactions. In the United States, roughly one of every 1.4 million doses of vaccines is complicated by a severe allergic reaction.”

…Offit said people should realize that there are immediate treatments for allergic reaction. “That’s why you’re hanging out in the doctor’s office,” he said, before warning that the reports of allergic reactions “will only serve as yet another way to scare people.”

That last part is important to remember.

Vaccines are only truly effective when widely used, so spouting half-truths based on a headline you saw doesn’t do anybody any favours.

Meanwhile, here in South Africa, with a second wave officially declared, we may be waiting a while yet.

The health department recently announced that South Africa will probably take its first delivery of a COVID-19 vaccine, which will cover 10% of the population, by the middle of next year.

Earlier this week, President Ramaphosa said, “the reality is that it will take some time before we can vaccinate enough South Africans to be assured of little to no transmission of the virus, and it will be a costly undertaking”.