Condell Resumes Vaccinations After Brief Pause

LIBERTYVILLE, IL — Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville has resumed vaccinating staff after briefly pausing administration of the COVID-19 shots when four people experienced reactions Friday. One of the staffers was hospitalized and monitored overnight following what appeared to be a severe allergic reaction but was discharged Saturday and "is doing well," according to a news release from Advocate Aurora Health.

The three other employees were sent home to recover "after experiencing reactions that can happen with vaccination," according to the news release. Those side effects included tingling and an elevated heart rate shortly after vaccination, ABC 7 reported.

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There are 6,000 Advocate employees who received their first dose of the Pfizer vaccine last week, and no other employees, other than the four at Condell, experienced reactions, WGN is reporting. An initial concern was that Condell may have received a bad batch of the vaccine

“That same lot of vaccine was used at multiple other sites both within and outside of Advocate Aurora Health and no other serious concerns reported. We felt that there were really no concerns about the integrity of the vaccine,” said Dr. Robert Citronberg, the system’s executive medical director of infectious disease and prevention.

Advocate Aurora Health conducted a "thorough internal review," which confirmed the quality of the vaccine batch and protocols in place for distributing the vaccine. The Center for Disease Control, Lake County Department of Health and Illinois Department of Public Health also agreed with Advocate's decision to resume vaccinations.

Advocate Aurora Health has decided to increase the amount of time for its post-vaccine evaluation period to 30 minutes, according to a news release.

• Reactions Prompt Libertyville Hospital To Pause Virus Vaccines

According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there is a remote chance that vaccine recipients will experience a major allergic reaction to the coronavirus vaccine. The most common side effects among participants in both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna phase 3 clinical trials were:

• Injection site pain
• Fatigue
• Headache
• Muscle pain
• Chills
• Joint pain
• Fever

In a statement, Advocate Aurora Health said less than 0.15 percent of the 3,000 staff members who have received the vaccine have experienced side effects. The decision to pause the vaccines on Friday was done "out of an abundance of caution."

Health care workers in Illinois became the first to receive the Pfizer vaccine last week. The first shipments of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine are also expected in Illinois starting this week.

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