What medical conditions exempt a person from receiving a Covid vaccine?

[left-of-center2012]

Some people may seek medical exemptions to not receive the shots, but what medical conditions would warrant exemptions? “People will seek an exemption for all sorts of reasons, but there are not very many valid ones,” said John Grabenstein, director of scientific communications for the Immunization Action Coalition, a vaccine education group, and a former executive director of medical affairs for vaccines at Merck. Typically, medical exemptions are based on “contraindications” — reasons not to administer a product — cited by the FDA, along with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other leading medical groups.

In the case of the Pfizer vaccine, the list is quite short: The only contraindication listed by the FDA is a “known history of a severe allergic reaction (e.g., anaphylaxis) to any component of COMIRNATY” — in other words, if a person is severely allergic to an ingredient in the vaccine. Similarly, the CDC says Covid vaccines are contraindicated in people who have had severe allergic reactions or immediate allergic reactions — occurring within four hours and including symptoms such as hives, swelling and wheezing — after receiving any ingredient of a Covid vaccine or after previous doses of that vaccine.

That does not mean that anyone with a history of any kind of allergies or anaphylaxis is medically unable to get a Covid vaccine. “So if you’re allergic to peanuts, it’s irrelevant, because there are no peanuts in the vaccines,” Grabenstein said. “If you’re allergic to pollen, it’s irrelevant, because there’s no ragweed. If you’re allergic to penicillin, there’s no penicillin in the vaccines. So you have to be allergic to a component of the vaccine.”

The number of people who have had anaphylactic reactions to Covid vaccines is very small, about 2 to 5 cases per million doses, said Dr. Niraj Patel of Atlanta, chair of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology’s Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mandates-roll-out-some-may-ask-medical-exemptions-what-s-n1278264

[Moshe_Strugano]

1. What medical conditions exempt a person from receiving a Covid vaccine?

I think COVID-19 vaccines are safe from many health condition, just confirm it with your doctors there will be no problem taking vaccines for all condition

[DURHAM D]

2. Is stupidity a medical condition? nt

[marybourg]

3. Recent transplant, recent cancer chemotherapy of some kinds

[Dustlawyer]

5. People with auto-immune disease also. It is not as cut and dried as this op states.

[marybourg]

8. I think you're wrong.

People with autoimmune diseases who are taking certain drugs are immunocompromised and need a *third* shot. I have lupus, probably the most serious autoimmune disease, and nobody told me not to take the shot. I was in the first 3% of the country to get it. Maybe if I were in a flare, I’d have waited it out.

[Dustlawyer]

12. My wife has lupus and RA and all of her doctors said no to her getting the vaccine.

Not a medical doctor myself but 3 doctors said no.

[marybourg]

14. OK. I'm ready for my booster.

Maybe with the many months now of experience theyll change their advice. Or maybe the decision was colored by her particular state of health. Good wishes to her.

[H2O Man]

4. The idea of

someone "seeking" a medical exemption would imply that they likely are looking for an excuse. People should simply take their doctor's advice, rather than try to mold it towards a specific recommendation. There are people with autoimmune diseases that might be told when it is safest for them to get the shot, who absolutely want to get it, or even that it is not safe. I trust my doctor, who is a strong advocate for the vaccine.

[mwooldri]

6. If one has had a god-awful reaction to dose #1...

... then yeah, some kind of exception for that particular vaccine. If another Covid vaccine with different ingredients is offered then that should be tried.

So happens my wife is a co-worker of one of those 2-5 in a million people who had a severe allergic reaction to the Moderna vaccine. That co-worker also had Covid (prior to there being a vaccine). My wife's employers have a vaccine mandate - get your shots or you're gone. In this case, he's exempted, for now.

[Quakerfriend]

7. There are some

eg, certain blood disorders, prior history of thrombocytopenia, prior history of cerebral vascular accident, history of Guillan barre syndrome.

[snowybirdie]

9. I'm allergic

to penicillin and get a severe reaction from it. I solved my concerns about Covid vaccine by getting my shots next to a hospital just in case. Anaphylaxis is easily reversed by a single shot. Rather that than the disease. BTW, no reaction. This medical exemption is pretty much b.s.

[GemDigger]

10. That is because penicillin is not in vaccines.

[lagomorph777]

13. I think that's the poster's point.

Anxiety was overcome by planning, and by reason.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

11. We need vaccine passports and to exclude/shun assholes who refuse to be vaccinated