Allergy skin prick tests with COVID-19 vaccines and their contribution to improve vaccination readiness and reduce anxiety

Background

When coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines were introduced, they were suspected of triggering severe allergic reactions disproportionately often. This contributed to the fear of vaccination, particularly among allergy patients.

Methods

In an allergy center in eastern Bavaria, we used a skin prick test to investigate how often sensitization to COVID-19 vaccines can be detected and whether appropriate testing could significantly reduce the fear of vaccination.

Results

Comirnaty® (n = 245 tested/6.93% clearly positive reaction; Biontec/Pfizer, Mainz, Germany/New York City, NY, USA), Spikevax® (56/14.28%; Moderna, Cambridge, MA, USA), Vaxzevria® (208/4.32%; Astra Zeneca, Cambridge, England) and Jcovden® (48/4.16%; Johnson & Johnson, New Brunswick, NJ, USA) were tested by skin prick test. Most participants tested were female (83.6%) and had a history of allergies (94.8%). Depending on the result of the skin prick test, the test subjects were advised on vaccination. In a questionnaire survey approximately 1 year after testing, 75.7% of the N = 70 respondents stated that their fear of vaccination had been greatly or very greatly reduced as a result of the testing and counseling. In the follow-up survey, 88.5% of all respondents had been vaccinated at least once. No notable allergic problems occurred during the COVID-19 vaccination in study participants.

Conclusion

The study shows that simple skin prick testing could reduce fears and concerns about allergic reactions to COVID-19 vaccines, and thus significantly increase the willingness to vaccinate in the population, especially among allergy patients.