How Often Do COVID Vaccines Cause Heart Problems in Kids? --rarely

How Often Do COVID Vaccines Cause Heart Problems in Kids? Federal regulators are reviewing data on the link between Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine and a rare heart problem in adolescents, the company announced Sunday. That side effect — myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle — has also worried advisers to federal agencies in deliberations regarding use of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in younger children and teenagers. Scientists advising the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will review the latest data on the condition at a meeting Tue YahooNews

...

how common is myocarditis, really? And should parents be concerned about vaccinating their children?

Absolutely not, said several experts familiar with the recent studies. While the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna do seem to be associated with an increased risk of myocarditis, the absolute risk remains very small. Most cases are mild and resolve quickly.

“If you look at an isolated risk, you could really get yourself very worked up and scared,” said Dr. Brian Feingold, an expert on heart inflammation in children at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.

But COVID-19 itself, he noted, is much more apt to damage the heart permanently: “Statistically, that’s way more likely.”

Myocarditis generally results from infection with a virus or bacteria, and causes symptoms like rapid or irregular heartbeat, chest pain and shortness of breath. Globally, about 10 to 20 people out of every 100,000 develop myocarditis each year, but many others have mild symptoms and may never be diagnosed.

Since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, tens of thousands of children have been hospitalized with COVID, and 657 have died, according to data collected by the CDC.

Some children who are infected with the coronavirus may go on to develop long COVID, remaining ill for months after the initial infection is gone, or multisystem inflammatory syndrome, which has affected at least 5,200 children in the United States.

While the risk of myocarditis after vaccination is real, “those are real numbers that are bigger,” Feingold said.

The incidence of myocarditis after vaccination varies with age, sex and dose — and across studies. But the trend so far suggests that the chances are highest after the second dose of an mRNA vaccine in male patients ages 16 to 29.

There are roughly 11 cases of myocarditis for every 100,000 vaccinated male patients in this age group, one study estimated. The odds of myocarditis decrease with age.

Data on adolescents ages 12 to 15 is limited, because the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine only recently became available to them. But so far, heart problems after vaccination seem to be less common in boys of that age than in older men, said Dr. Paul A. Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.  ...