Covid-19 Hub

Answer from Dr. Michael Ackerman

I’ve told all of my patients and every genetic heart patient we see at the SADS Foundation that if you have a SADS condition (Long QT syndrome, CPVT, Brugada syndrome, etc.) you should get vaccinated. If you are 16 years or older, you can get the vaccine, you should get the vaccine, it is safe for your heart.

Answer from Dr. Stacey Rizza

• The vaccine may give you longer protective immunity than an actual infection.
• Getting the virus, even if you’re fairly asymptomatic, may have some longer term effects we’re not aware of.
• All of us want to get back to doing things we did pre COVID. We want to see our family again, we want to get together for dinner dates, we want to go to sporting events, we want to travel. If you want those restrictions to be lifted, we need to have the virus stop moving from person to person.
• It’s safe. It works. And if you want to get back to the way things work, even if you’re the healthiest youngest person in the world, getting the vaccine is going to help society and get us back to the way we were faster.

Answer from Dr. Stacey Rizza

The safety and the science were not accelerated. What was accelerated was the funding, the paperwork, the regulatory steps that were normally put in place to slow people down. The rigor, the safety requirements, and the science were not accelerated. In fact, if anything, we have more safety data over a longer period of time than virtually any other vaccine that’s been approved before. So I feel very comfortable that this is a safe vaccine.

Answer from Dr. Stacey Rizza

The data obviously isn’t as robust about pregnant or breastfeeding people. But the FDA does not see any reason why it would not be safe, and recommended that pregnant people get it as well. There have been pregnant women vaccinated and the data is that the vaccine is safe. We do know pregnant women do not do as well with the infection. So the risk of the vaccine is much lower than you remaining vulnerable to COVID. And so we do recommend pregnant people getting vaccinated.

Answer from Dr. Stacey Rizza

They’re both the same mechanism of delivering the vaccine and their data is virtually identical. I see them as interchangeable. The only difference is the second shot of Pfizer is after three weeks, the second shot of the Moderna is after four weeks. And so that’s the only thing to be aware of. It’s slightly different, but the safety profiles, the efficacy, everything else is virtually interchangeable.

Answer from Dr. Stacey Rizza

We absolutely want you to get your flu shot right away. And you wait 14 days after your flu shot before you’re eligible to take your COVID shot. So if you’re being offered the COVID shot right now and you have an appointment tomorrow, please go do the COVID shot. And then after your series has been complete, you’re supposed to wait 14 days and then get your flu shot. But if your ticket’s not up, so to speak, for COVID right now, go get the flu shot right away. And then 14 days later, you could start the COVID series.

Answer from Dr. Stacey Rizza

The trials for people under 16 are underway right now. So that’s probably going to take several months till we have the data available. They need to determine how long it takes to show efficacy, and that population tends to be less affected by COVID. We’re hoping by later in the year, hopefully by summer, maybe a little bit later, that data will be complete. And if it is shown to be safe and effective, then it will be approved.

Answer from Dr. Stacey Rizza

They’re very, very few for this vaccine. You can have an allergy and still get this vaccine. There are a few very, very subtle allergies that are very, very specific to some of the agents within this vaccine. And the people who have that know they’ve had allergies to previous vaccines. And they should tell their healthcare worker and the healthcare worker can specifically look into whether that agent is in this vaccine, but they’re very, very unusual and very rare. We also do take pause if somebody has had Guillain-Barre syndrome from a previous vaccine, and that’s not the vaccine causing it but your body forms an immune allergic reaction to the vaccine. It is extremely, extremely rare and has not been seen really in this one. But we would probably take pause if somebody has had that with previous vaccines. But other than very rare situations, most people can take this vaccine.

Answer from Dr. Michael Ackerman

If you have a febrile reaction to your vaccine, just promptly lower your fever. Just properly lower your fever with acetaminophen, Tylenol, ibuprofen, whatever you like for your fever lowering strategy.

We have received questions from patients regarding allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccine and use of an Epi-Pen. According to published articles, there is no absolute contraindication to giving epinephrine to a patient with anaphylaxis, and the patient with LQTS is no exception. Airway obstruction from angioedema, respiratory failure from bronchospasm, and circulatory collapse from anaphylaxis are immediately treatable with prompt administration of epinephrine.

Michael J. Ackerman, MD, PhD, director of the Long QT Syndrome Clinic and professor of medicine, pediatrics, and molecular pharmacology at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, has said, “For the past 20 years in our clinic, we have recommended an Epi-Pen for our LQTS patients who have concomitant severe allergies,” for which the prevalence is the same as in the general population.

These patients have rarely had to use their Epi-Pen, and when they have, it was effective. Dr Ackerman says that the notion that beta blockers render epinephrine ineffective seems erroneous. “The only real issue that I have seen is when such patients were counseled not to have an Epi-Pen or were scared to use it out of fear that it might awaken their LQTS substrate, and there was then a delay in treating the anaphylactic reaction.”