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Editorial
Vaccine-induced interstitial lung disease: a rare reaction to COVID-19 vaccination
  1. Alison M DeDent,
  2. Erica Farrand
  1. Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Alison M DeDent, 513 Parnassus Ave, HSE 1314, Box 0111, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California CA 94143, USA; alison.dedent{at}ucsf.edu

https://doi.org/10.1136/thoraxjnl-2021-217985

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    After millions of deaths worldwide and months of widespread social and economic devastation, the first vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) was given emergency use listing by the WHO.1 Approved only 1 year after the virus was first identified in Wuhan, China, this historic achievement was the result of public and private institutional partnerships, as well as decades of foundational scientific research. Two of the earliest vaccines authorised for widespread use were the BNT162b2 (Pfizer/BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines, demonstrating 95% and 94.1% efficacy, respectively, in phase II/III clinical trials. Notably, both vaccines have strong safety profiles, with the most common adverse events including injection site reactions, fever, chills, fatigue, headache, and muscle and joint aches.2 3 Postauthorisation reports of severe reactions, including anaphylaxis, have been extremely rare, occurring in only 4.5 reported cases per million doses.4

    In this issue of Thorax, Park and colleagues5 present the first published case of COVID-19 vaccine-related interstitial lung disease (ILD). An 86-year-old man developed an acute onset of fever, weakness, shortness of breath and hypoxaemia requiring high-flow nasal cannula 1 day after receiving a dose of a COVID-19 mRNA vaccine. He had no history of ILD, connective tissue …

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter @ericafarrandMD

    • Contributors AMD drafted the initial version of the manuscript, and AMD and EF participated in drafting all revisions. Both authors approved the final manuscript submitted for publication.

    • Funding The authors have not declared a specific grant for this research from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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