Testing czar: COVID-19 vaccine 'still widely recommended' despite 'scattered' allergic reaction reports

Adm. Brett Giroir, who oversees the White House's coronavirus testing strategy, on Sunday addressed "scattered reports" of allergic reactions among people who have received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. "Any time there's any adverse effect, that's immediately reported to the [Food and Drug Administration], the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] investigates," he told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on This Week.

Giroir said anything that gets reported is taken very seriously, but he also wanted to make it clear that the incidents that have occurred have not altered the consensus view that the vaccine is safe to use. He added that many of the suspected allergic reactions involve "tingling" and an "elevated heart rate," which could stem from hyperventilation around the vaccine, rather than a response to the shot itself, and he also acknowledged that allergic reactions are a risk for any vaccine. Still, he said, "we're going to watch these absolutely carefully."