As of Dec. 10, the CDC announced that it has received 14 reports of myocarditis, a potentially fatal type of heart inflammation, in young students aged five to 11 years old who were vaccinated against COVID-19. Out of the recorded cases, at least eight reports involving four boys and four girls met the CDC's "working case definition" for myocarditis.
Five of the 14 cases reported are still being followed up on.
Of the eight cases accepted by the CDC, six came after the children received their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only vaccine available for the age group. (Related: UNKNOWN RISK: Pfizer admits more studies are needed on myocarditis risk linked to COVID vaccines for kids.)
The reports were highlighted last Dec. 16, along with 3,233 other post-vaccination adverse events reported to the agency's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
Even though the agency insisted that the cases had a "mild clinical course," it didn't confirm if it has identified a connection between the myocarditis incidents and the Pfizer vaccine. Additionally, the CDC didn't disclose the frequency of myocarditis occurrence among those in the age group that were unvaccinated.
The agency reported that there had been more than seven million vaccine doses administered to the five to 11 age group by Dec. 9. The CDCD also reported two deaths of children with "complicated medical histories," while once again insisting that the majority of adverse events reported were "non-serious."
Teenagers more likely to develop vaccine-related myocarditis than get hospitalized with COVID-19
According to a study, healthy adolescent males are more likely to be taken to the hospital with myocarditis linked to the Pfizer vaccine than coronavirus itself.
The study, which has yet to be peer-reviewed, revealed that adolescent boys aged 12 to 15 who had no underlying medical conditions were at least four to six times more likely to be diagnosed with vaccine-related myocarditis than be hospitalized with coronavirus over four months.
Most children who developed myocarditis experienced symptoms within days of receiving their second shot of the Pfizer vaccine. At least 86 percent of the boys affected required hospitalization.
A similar side-effect was observed with Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.
For the study, Dr. Tracy Hoeg of the University of California and colleagues examined adverse reactions to coronavirus vaccines in adolescent American children aged 12 to 17 during the first half of 2021.
They estimated the rate of myocarditis after two doses of the Pfizer vaccine to be 162.2 cases per million for healthy boys aged 12 to 15 and 94 cases per million for those 16 to 17 years old.
For girls, the rates were 13.4 and 13 cases per million, respectively. At current U.S. infection rates, the risk of a healthy teenager being hospitalized with coronavirus in the next 120 days is about 44 per million, said the researchers.
Parents of elementary school students unwilling to risk their children's safety with COVID-19 vaccines
Early in December, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said that the agency hadn't "seen anything yet" about myocarditis cases after inoculation.
Walensky also said that the vaccine was safe for young children. However, a recent poll showed that almost two-thirds of parents of elementary schoolers were unwilling to expose their children to any risks linked to the coronavirus vaccines.
When approving Pfizer's mRNA vaccine for the age group in October 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) expressed concerns over myocarditis and pericarditis (the inflammation of tissue surrounding the heart) among adolescent boys aged 12 to 17.
However, the FDA's benefit-risk assessment model predicted that the vaccine's benefits for children aged five-11 years "would outweigh its risks."
Watch the video below to know more about vaccine-related myocarditis in children.
Go to Vaccines.news for more information about COVID-19 vaccine and its various adverse effects.
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