HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Aug. 2, 2021 (HealthDay Information) — U.S. well being officers have some reassuring information in regards to the security of the COVID-19 vaccine in younger folks: Amongst hundreds of thousands of U.S. teenagers who’ve obtained Pfizer’s photographs, critical unwanted side effects have been uncommon.
As of July 16, near 9 million teenagers, aged 12 to 17, had obtained the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine — the one one okayed for that age group. Amongst roughly 9,240 reported unwanted side effects, 91% have been minor, reminiscent of soreness close to the vaccination website.
However 9% have been critical, with 4% creating a coronary heart drawback often known as myocarditis, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Friday.
“Native and systemic reactions are frequent amongst adolescents following Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, particularly after the second dose; nevertheless, critical antagonistic occasions after COVID-19 vaccination are uncommon,” mentioned the report’s lead writer, Anne Hause, a CDC epidemiologist.
Myocarditis was among the many commonest extreme antagonistic occasions reported, she mentioned. That is an irritation of the heart muscle that may have an effect on the center’s electrical system, decreasing its pumping potential and inflicting fast or irregular rhythms.
Myocarditis is often brought on by a viral infection, reminiscent of COVID-19, however can be a response to a drug. Indicators and signs embrace chest pain, fatigue, shortness of breath and arrhythmias (irregular coronary heart rhythm).
Whereas this affiliation could sound alarming, CDC specialists proceed to emphasize the advantages of vaccination for all folks aged 12 and older. The vaccine has not but been accepted for youthful children.
Getting vaccinated is healthier than getting COVID-19, Hause mentioned.
“The advantages of vaccination in stopping COVID-19 and its problems proceed to outweigh the potential dangers of uncommon antagonistic occasions reported after vaccination,” she mentioned.
Final week, a research revealed within the preprint server medRxiv discovered that teenagers have been at considerably better threat of creating coronary heart irritation after getting COVID-19 itself than from the vaccine. Researchers checked out coronary heart irritation charges in about 14,000 teenagers identified with COVID-19 and in the same variety of vaccinated teenagers who reported unwanted side effects. They discovered that the danger of coronary heart irritation was 21 instances larger amongst women with COVID and about six instances larger amongst boys with COVID in contrast with the vaccination group.
“Vaccinating 12- to 17-year-olds stays the safer alternative for this age group and can scale back college interruptions and transmission to others,” mentioned Mendel Singer, vice chair for training at Case Western Reserve College College of Drugs in Cleveland and co-author of the medRxiv research.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Schooling Heart on the Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia, agreed that unwanted side effects from the vaccine are preferable to the devastating results of COVID-19.
“You could put it in perspective. Initially, it seems roughly just one in 20,000 recipients who’re within the highest threat group will develop myocarditis after two photographs,” he mentioned.
“Myocarditis by no means sounds good. You’ll be able to say delicate myocarditis all you need, but it surely’s additionally going to scare folks, as a result of the irritation of the center muscle is at all times going to be seen as worrisome. Nevertheless it does seem like self-limiting, short-lived, not deadly and never related to coronary artery abnormalities,” Offit mentioned.
A latest research amongst 1,600 faculty athletes who had COVID-19 discovered that roughly one in 43 had myocarditis, he mentioned. “So you have got mainly one in 20,000 phenomena at its peak for the vaccine and a one in 43 phenomena with the illness.”
If signs of myocarditis develop, mother and father ought to take their baby to the physician, and so they could also be referred to the hospital for commentary, Offit mentioned.
To oldsters who’re involved about having their baby vaccinated, Offit mentioned, “Simply know that the illness is frequent, that this (Delta) variant particularly is very contagious.”
He added that some consider that over the following few years, you may have two decisions — to be vaccinated or to be naturally contaminated. “Vaccination is the safer alternative, as a result of pure an infection additionally causes myocarditis at a a lot larger charge,” he mentioned.
The illness is worse than the vaccine, Offit careworn. “That is at all times true,” he mentioned.
The report was revealed July 30 within the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Extra info
For extra on COVID-19 vaccine unwanted side effects, head to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
SOURCES: Anne Hause, PhD, epidemiologist, U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention; Mendel Singer, PhD, vice chair for training, Case Western Reserve College College of Drugs, Cleveland; Paul Offit, MD, director, Vaccine Schooling Heart, Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, July 30, 2021
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