WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 09th January, 2021) Canadian public health officials will investigate all serious complications resulting from coronavirus immunization, Health Canada told Sputnik following an inquiry about a Florida doctor who died after receiving the Pfizer vaccine against the disease just weeks earlier.
On Tuesday, Heidi Neckelmann said in a social media post that her husband Gregory Michael, an obstetrician at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Miami Beach, Florida, died after receiving the vaccine on December 18. Neckelmann explained that Michael developed petechiae - round spots that appear on the skin as a result of bleeding - three days after receiving the vaccine and died of hemorrhagic stroke weeks later.
"Canada has a robust vaccine safety monitoring system in place and all serious events will be investigated," Health Canada's media relations department said on Friday in response to Sputnik's question about the 56-year-old doctor's case.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a statement on Wednesday that it is "aware" of Michael's death.
Pfizer, which developed the vaccine in conjunction with German biotechnology company, BioNTech, told USA Today that it is "actively investigating this case," although said that it did not believe the vaccine played a role in the Florida physician's death.
The latest data from Health Canada indicates that nine out of 115,072 individuals who have received the vaccine have exhibited an adverse reaction to the shot, including five who experienced severe side effects. There have been reports of fatalities following immunization in Israel and Switzerland, however, no links have been established between the death and the vaccination.
Pfizer was the first vaccine against the deadly disease approved by Canadian health regulators and the first dose was administered on December 14 to a personal support worker in a long-term care home in Toronto.
