Age: 68.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: COVID19, COVID19
Symptoms: Asthma, Chest discomfort, Chest pain, Cough, Fatigue
Clinical narrative: Asthma flare up; dry, hacky cough; pain and tightness in her chest; pain and tightness in her chest; nausea feeling in her chest; She gets this laryngitis; has trouble talking; She wants to make sure its not going into like a viral pneumonia; Flu-like symptoms; fever; achy; fatigue; Sore arm; Headache; This is a spontaneous report received from a contactable pharmacist (patient). A 68-year-old female patient received the second dose of BNT162B2 (PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE; solution for injection; Lot Number: CER230) via an unspecified route of administration on 24Mar2021 at 11:30 (at the age of 68-years-old) as a single dose in the right arm for COVID-19 immunisation. The medical history included flu and suspected COVID-19 both in Jan2020 to an unspecified date (she had a bad flu back in Jan2020, which could have been COVID because it was such a bad flu, over a year ago), ongoing asthma from an unspecified date (mild asthma) and chest nausea in Jan2020 to an unspecified date. The patient had no history of any adverse events following prior vaccinations. Medical history (including any illness at time of vaccination) was also reported as none. Family medical history relevant to the adverse event included an uncle that had asthma, but no one else had breathing issues. Concomitant medications included fluticasone propionate/salmeterol xinafoate (ADVAIR) and ipratropium bromide/salbutamol sulfate (DUONEB), both ongoing and taken for asthma on unspecified dates. Other products were also reported as "no". The patient did not receive any prior vaccinations within 4 weeks prior to the COVID-19 vaccine and did not receive any additional vaccines on the same date as the COVID-19 vaccine. The patient previously received the first dose of BNT162B2 (PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE; solution for injection; Lot Number: 3N6202) via an unspecified route of administration on 24Feb2021 at 11:30 (at the age of 68-years-old) as a single dose in the left arm for COVID-19 immunisation. On 24Mar2021 the patient experienced sore arm and headache; on 25Mar2021 the patient experienced flu-like symptoms, fever, achy, fatigue; on 02Apr2021 the patient experienced asthma flare up, dry, hacky cough, pain and tightness in her chest, nausea feeling in her chest; on unspecified dates in Apr2021 the patient experienced she gets this laryngitis, has trouble talking and she wants to make sure its not going into like a viral pneumonia. The reporter classified the events headache and flu-like symptoms as non-serious. The patient called to report that she had an asthma flare up 10 days (as reported) after her second dose of COVID-19 vaccine on 24Mar2021. The patient stated that she did not get a flare up often, she had mild asthma. She usually got mild flare-ups since she did not have severe asthma. She stated it could be something else, but she had not had a flare-up like this since she had a bad flu back in Jan2020, which could have been COVID-19 because it was such a bad flu. That was over a year ago. She received her second vaccine on 24Mar2021, and the asthma flare up and hacking cough started on 02Apr2021. On the night of 24Mar2021, she started with a headache. She had the shot at 11 something and by that evening before she went to bed, she had a headache and a sore arm, but that was no big deal. Then on 25Mar2021, she started with flu like symptoms/fever. The headache persisted through that as well. At that point, she did not have tightness or the dry, hacky cough. By the middle of the day on 27Mar2021, her flu-like symptoms were gone. She would consider these to be "non-serious", it was what she expected, as it was seen from the paperwork of the vaccine. By 28Mar2021, all of her symptoms were gone prior to the flare-up. She had typical flu-like symptoms: fever, headache, achy, fatigue on the 2nd, 3rd, and into the 4th day but then they cleared up. By the evening of the 4th day, she started feeling fairly normal. She stated that they were mild flu symptoms. Her temperature was only 100 for about a day. She stated that that was expected. Then, she went into this flare-up about the 10th day after the vaccine. The first 3 or 4 days after the flare up began, the flare up was worsening. Then, she got it under a little bit of control, so she was not coughing all night and having to sit up as she was sleeping. Now, she was concerned about the pain and tightness in her chest and the hacky cough. She wanted to make sure it was not going into like a viral pneumonia or another thing. She did not know. She kept increasing her Advair use and was at the top of that. She was doing the duoneb which she did not usually have to do. She had not had to do that since Jan2020 when she had the 5-week flu, or it could have been COVID (they were calling it a hoax back then). She was using her duoneb 4 times a day and now she was using it to 2-3 times, but she was still getting chest tightness, hacky cough. It was kind of like nausea- it was hard to explain, it was kind of like a chest nausea, which she had also had back in Jan2020 when she had the bad flu. She also would get this laryngitis and had trouble talking. With her flare-up, her chest tightness/nausea feeling in the chest continued. Now, she was getting into laryngitis type of thing, but she could loosen that up with her duoneb but if she got to the point where she could not do that, she would definitely have to see someone right away. She clarified that when her chest got tight, the dry, hacky cough continued/increased. When she did the breathing treatment, it loosened it up for about 3-4 hours and some of the pain would go away in her chest. If she talked too much, she would begin to cough. She had had this flare up 3 times in her life, it was not very common. She was diagnosed with asthma in her 40s, and this was her 3rd time ever having anything like this. This was the first time she had experienced a flare up like this. She had had 3 episodes since she had had asthma in her 40's and all 3 bad episodes were about the same. All the episodes were related to illness, it did not just happen out of the blue. It happened with a viral respiratory thing or the flu. The adverse events did not require a visit to the emergency room or physician office. The patient stated that she would call her physician or the clinic "today or tomorrow". She had not been to a doctor since her asthma flared up. Her respiratory doctor/pulmonologist moved away, there was no respiratory doctor nearby right now. So, her general practitioner was following her because it was a mild case and she had mild asthma. If it was severe, her doctor would make her go to a specialist. Relevant tests were reported as no. The patient used to be followed with pulmonary function tests until her respiratory doctor moved away. The patient stated that she took care of her 94 year old mother several days a week and because of all of the variances coming out, she thought it was her civic duty to prevent it from spreading through the population and creating more variances which was why she received the vaccine. She stated her doses were scheduled a month apart because they expecting to get a shipment of Moderna and they did not. They had to run to Buffalo to get the Pfizer vaccine, but they left her doses scheduled a month apart because the appointments were so hard to get. Normally, it would be 3 weeks. Her card clearly said Pfizer and they told her Pfizer, and they told her the reason for it being scheduled at 4 weeks. The patient called to inquire whether asthma flare-ups had been seen in clinical trials. It was not a reported side effect from the paperwork she received. When she looked online, she could not really find anything. She was thinking of going to a clinic but was wondering if there were any reports of flare-ups with asthma with the vaccine. With regards to causality, the patient stated it was a concern because she usually did not get a flare-up unless she was sick. She stated that there were many variables, and that it was spring, and bugs were out, but she did not usually get a flare-up like this. She stated that maybe it was a challenge to her immune system, the antibodies, but she did not know. She suspected the flare-up was related to the vaccine, but she did not have any idea. She would say yes, but she had no way of knowing. The flare-up usually only appeared if she got ill or something weird happened to her.  The clinical outcomes of the events flu-like symptoms, fever, achy and fatigue were recovered/resolved on 27Mar2021; sore arm and headache were recovered/resolved on 28Mar2021; asthma flare up, dry, hacky cough, pain and tightness in her chest and nausea feeling in her chest were not recovered/not resolved; she gets this laryngitis, has trouble talking and she wants to make sure its not going into like a viral pneumonia were unknown. The reporter believed there was a reasonable possibility that the events sore arm, flu-like symptoms, asthma flare-up, dry, hacky cough, pain and tightness in her chest and nausea feeling in her chest were related to BNT162B2.   No follow-up attempts are needed. No further information is expected.; Sender's Comments: Based on the available information the events asthma flare-ups and viral pneumonia are attributed to intercurrent medical conditions, unlikely related to BNT162B2 (PFIZER-BIONTECH COVID-19 MRNA VACCINE). The impact of this report on the benefit/risk profile of the Pfizer product is evaluated as part of Pfizer procedures for safety evaluation, including the review and analysis of aggregate data for adverse events. Any safety concern identified as part of this review, as well as any appropriate action in response, will be promptly notified to Regulatory Authorities, Ethics Committees and Investigators, as appropriate.