Infectious Disease

Skin color representation required when skin reactions to COVID-19 vaccines are discussed

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Healio Psoriasis Disease

Disclosure:
Blumenthal does not report any relevant financial information.

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Inclusion of blacks, indigenous peoples, and coloreds is required in photos and studies of skin reactions after the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, according to correspondence published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A vaccine allergy and hypersensitivity reaction registry has tracked skin reactions following the COVID-19 vaccines. In April, data was released showing that responses to Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA-based vaccines were mostly minor and should not deter anyone from receiving a vaccine or receiving their second dose. However, these data and the teaching materials derived from them were not represented by BIPOC.

“Originally, all of the skin reaction cases we saw, as well as the cases published elsewhere, were in white people, and it was unclear whether there was a reporting error that people missed skin reactions in people of color or whether the difference was due to different vaccination rates dar “, Kimberly Blumenthal, MD, MSc, Co-director of the Clinical Epidemiology Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and one of the authors of both the first article and the most recent letter, Healio said.

The researchers retrieved images and reaction data from colored people and found that 55 out of 510 register reactions (11%) occurred in this population. Five percent of the reactions occurred in Asian subjects, 4% in multiracial subjects, including Native American-Alaska natives and Native Hawaiian-Pacific Islanders, 11% in Hispanic subjects, and 1% in black subjects.

Kimberly Blumenthal

The published case series and letter to the editor included eight images of large, local skin reactions that occurred in colored skin after the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which the authors believe are necessary for illustration purposes.

“These reactions can unnecessarily add to vaccination delay, potentially resulting in an initial mRNA vaccine course not being completed or hesitation about future booster doses,” said Blumenthal. “If we don’t recognize, diagnose and support everyone by identifying these reactions and explaining their implications … then we are unnecessarily contributing to under-vaccination or incomplete vaccination.”

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