Mendocino Co. & Adventist Health administered doses of Moderna vaccine that has since been “paused”

WILLITS, 1/19/21 — A batch of the Moderna COVID-19 that was deemed to have a higher risk of eliciting an allergic reaction, made its way to Mendocino County, where both the County of Mendocino’s Public Health Department and Adventist Health administered doses of the vaccine amounting to a few hundred. However, though some people have had mild reactions, largely in keeping with the normal range of reactions resulting from inoculation, no severe reactions to the vaccine have been reported in Mendocino County. It should be noted, the reactions associated with this bad batch have been allergic reactions, similar a food allergy or the like, and not a unique kind of reaction associated specifically with vaccines.

Dr. Erica Pan, chief epidemiologist for the State of California, warned Sunday that a batch of the Moderna vaccine was resulting in a higher than normal level of allergic reactions. Pan then said that “out of an extreme abundance of caution” the state was saying that the vaccine should not be administered. However, this warning came late, and both the Public Health Department and Adventist Health administered a large number of doses from this batch. Moderna is conducting an investigation into the batch, and because of a scarcity of vaccine, that batch is currently considered “paused” rather than recalled.