NY health provider may have fraudulently obtained COVID-19 vaccine

A person receiving the Moderna vaccine has had a serious allergic reaction apparently for the first time.

Dr. Hossein Sadrzadeh, a geriatric oncology fellow at Boston Medical Center, had the serious reaction when receiving the vaccine earlier this week.

"The employee received the Moderna vaccine Thursday and as is our standard practice was being observed post vaccination by trained nurses," Boston Medical Center said in a statement Friday. "He felt he was developing an allergic reaction and was allowed to self-administer his personal epi-pen. He was taken to the Emergency Department, evaluated, treated, observed and discharged. He is doing well today."

There have been a handful of reports about recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine suffering allergic reactions, but this is the first known via Moderna's shot.

Sadrzadeh told ABC News that he specifically chose to get the Moderna vaccine -- as opposed to Pfizer's vaccine -- because he had a history of allergic reactions.

At the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices hearing last week discussing approval for the vaccine, Moderna scientist Dr. Jacqueline Miller discussed some cases in the trials.

"At the time of our EA submission, we've had two anaphylaxis reactions that have been reported as unsolicited and one was in a placebo group occurring 10 days after the first [shot]," Miller told the panel. "And that subject has reported a history of allergy to shellfish."

Sadrzadeh also had a shellfish allergy.

"They injected the vaccine, and just like less than a minute after injecting the vaccine, I felt that my heart is racing," he told ABC News late Friday. "I asked the nurses to come and just take my vital signs ... and interestingly, for the first time in my life, I saw my heart rate is 154. I felt like tingling, numbness in my tongue and also in my throat. It was like a similar feeling that I had before with my allergic reaction."

Sadrzadeh said his blood pressure was so low it did not register on the machine and at that point asked if he could inject himself with his EpiPen.

"It was not the first time that I had this experience, but I would say that it was the worst experience after my first experience at age 11," he added.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's foremost infectious disease expert, said people who are prone to these types of severe allergic reactions might want to get their vaccine at a medical facility that's equipped to take care of them, in case they experience a severe reaction.

ABC News' Zohreen Shah and Sean Sanders contributed to this report.

The Duke women's basketball team has decided to end its season due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"The student-athletes on the Duke women's basketball team have made the difficult decision to conclude their current season due to safety concerns," Michael Schoenfeld, Duke's vice president for public affairs and government relations and chief communications officer, said in a statement. "We support their decision, as we have supported the choices made by all student-athletes at Duke during this unprecedented time."

The team suspended activities on Dec. 16 after two members of the program's "travel party" tested positive for COVID-19. It's unclear if they were players or staff, but contact tracing didn't allow for the team to field enough players.

The Blue Devils had gone 3-1 in the first four games under newly hired head coach Kara Lawson. The former Tennessee star and ESPN commentator said earlier this season she did not believe that college basketball games should proceed during the pandemic.

Duke men's coach, Hall of Famer Mike Krzyzewski, made similar comments this month as well. The men's team, currently ranked No. 20 in the AP poll, has continued to play.

The Duke women's team is the first major program to end their season.

There are currently more than 120,000 patients hospitalized with coronavirus in the United States, according to The COVID Tracking Project. 

In an evening update on Christmas Eve, the project said there were a record 120,151 coronavirus patients currently hospitalized. 

This marks the 20th straight day the nation has hit a record high of current hospitalizations.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will now require a negative COVID-19 test for all air travelers coming to the United States from the United Kingdom in the wake of news about new strains of the virus being detected in the U.K.

Everyone arriving in the U.S. must have a negative PCR or antigen test from within 72 hours of departure, according to a statement from the CDC.

"The public health authorities in the United Kingdom recently announced the discovery of a new variant of SARS-CoV-2," the CDC wrote in its announcement. "Viruses constantly change through mutation, and preliminary analysis in the U.K. suggests that this new variant may be up to 70% more transmissible than previously circulating variants."

Passengers will have to provide written documentation of the negative test and airlines will be required to confirm the information, the CDC said. Airlines will have to refuse anyone without a negative test.

While the strain appears to be more transmissible, there's no evidence it is more deadly, or that the vaccines currently being rolled out won't be effective against it.

President Donald Trump, who is spending the Christmas holiday in Florida, will sign the executive order on Friday and it will go into effect on Monday.

Dozens of countries have largely banned travelers from the U.K., at least temporarily, including Canada, Mexico, Russia, China and India. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries that will require negative tests, including Greece and Spain.