Portugal: ‘Woman Dies After COVID-19 Vaccine’ Amid Global Concerns (Worthy News Investigation)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Portugal’s authorities investigate the death of a Portuguese health worker who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the novel coronavirus following similar reported incidents in other countries.
Sonia Acevedo, 41, died on New Year’s Day, two days after getting the COVID-19 vaccine said her father and the health institute where she worked.
News of her death followed reports that a 91-year-old nursing home resident died in Switzerland five days after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Swiss health authorities said the patient was already ill when she was inoculated on December 24 and that a link with the vaccine was “highly unlikely.”
Separately in Israel, two elderly persons died after getting the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, health authorities confirmed. Among the victims was a 75-year-old man who had previously suffered heart attacks. He died from a heart attack on December 29, two hours after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, officials confirmed.
The next day, an 88-year-old Israeli died just hours following her injection with the same jab. In both cases, health officials rushed to say there was no apparent link between their deaths and vaccinations.
However, following the death of the much younger inoculated mother-of-two in Portugal, health authorities there reportedly raised the alarm.
ACTIVE HEALTH WORKER
Sonia Acevedo worked at the Portuguese Institute of Oncology in Porto, which focuses on cancer treatment, research, and education.
Along with several colleagues, Acevedo took the vaccine on December 30, but 48 hours later, she suddenly died after not feeling well, her employer said.
Her mourning father, Abilio Acevedo, told local media that he is puzzled and angry over his daughter’s “sudden death. “She was okay. She hadn’t had any health problems,” he said in published remarks. “She had the COVID-19 vaccine, but she didn’t have any symptoms. I don’t know what happened. I just want answers. I want to know what led to my daughter’s death.”
Before the autopsy began, firms Pfizer and BioNTech denied wrongdoing after a similar reported case in Switzerland. They said in a statement that “serious adverse events, including deaths that are unrelated to the vaccine, are unfortunately likely to occur.” They added that those deaths are “at a similar rate as they would in the general population of elderly and at-risk individuals who are currently being prioritized for vaccination.”
GLOBAL QUESTIONS
But the controversy comes at a time of global worries about possible side effects of the Pfizer-BioNTech and other COVID-19 vaccines.
Last month the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said thousands of people suffered ‘health impact events’ due to coronavirus vaccinations. A CDC report obtained by Worthy News showed problems started almost immediately after the roll-out began of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 jab.
Out of 112,807 registered receivers of the vaccine, at least 3,150 people complained of “health impacts events” over the December 14-18 period, the report showed.
The CDC did not provide more details. But its findings came amid confirmation of people facing health issues such as allergic reactions and feeling dizzy in Britain and the United States.
British health officials warned people with a history of “significant” allergic reactions to vaccines, medicine, or food should not be given the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19.
ADVERSE REACTIONS
The advice came after two people in Britain’s first coronavirus vaccine group, both health care workers, experienced “adverse reactions” after taking it.
Pharmaceutical giant Moderna, which rolled out its COVID-19 slightly later globally, also faced controversy. A Boston doctor, for instance, suffered a severe allergic reaction last month to Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine.
Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines rely on the same platform: messenger RNA (mRNA). This technique has never been used in an approved vaccine before.
However, Moderna called its “mRNA Medicines – The ‘Software of Life'” in a statement. “When we have a concept for a new mRNA medicine and begin research, fundamental components are already in place,” it said in remarks monitored by Worthy News.
But it acknowledged that “using mRNA to create medicines is a complex undertaking and requires overcoming novel scientific and technical challenges. We need to get the mRNA into the targeted tissue and cells while evading the immune system.”
EXPERTS CONCERNED
While mRNA’s fragility makes it unlikely to linger in the body, any vaccine could theoretically cause disruptions in the immune system, experts warned.
“Many experts question whether the technology is ready for prime time,” noted STAT, an investigative health news service.
Drugmakers Pfizer, BioNTech, and Moderna, claim their vaccines are roughly 95 percent effective against the novel coronavirus.
Governments around the world are rushing to purchase COVID-19 jabs to halt the pandemic.
According to official estimates, more than 1.8 million people have so far died of, or with, the novel coronavirus on a world population of 7.8 billion.
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