- The UK vaccination advisory body said recently that there is “considerable uncertainty about the extent of potential damage”.
By hindustantimes.com | Written by Kunal Gaurav, Hindustan Times, New Delhi
PUBLISHED SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 at 3:19 PM IST
According to a new study, healthy teen boys are likely to be hospitalized with a rare side effect after the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine than the virus itself. U.S. researchers studied the rate of cases of post-vaccination cardiac myocarditis in the 12-15 and 16-17 age groups to analyze the benefits and risk of administering mRNA vaccines among adolescents.
The researchers identified a total of 257 vaccine-related cardiac adverse events (CAEs) after the second dose of the mRNA vaccine. The CAE rate per million among children aged 12 to 15 years was 162.2, while it was 94.0 in children aged 16 to 17 years. Among the girls, the equivalent rates were 13.0 and 13.4 per million respectively.
The study suggests that the CAE rate was 3.7 to 6.1 times higher among healthy children aged 12 to 15 years than their risk of hospitalization for Covid-19 in 120 days from 21 August. The CAE rate was 2.6-4.3- multiplied at times of high risk weekly hospitalization, as during January 2021.
“For boys 16 to 17 years of age without medical comorbidities, the CAE rate is currently 2.1 to 3.5 times higher than their risk of hospitalization for 120 days for Covid-19 and 1.5 to 2 , 5 times higher at times of elevated weekly hospitalization for Covid-19, ”the study says.
The studio has not yet been reviewed by experts and is currently available on a prepress server.
Read also | Myocarditis: Everything You Need to Know About Covid-19 Related Disease
The United States had issued a warning to observe the symptoms of myocarditis after a small number of cases of heart inflammation in adolescents were reported. Although the United States has continued to administer mRNA vaccines among young adolescents, the UK Vaccination Advisory Body has not recommended inoculating all children aged 12 to 15 with mRNA vaccines.
The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Vaccination (JCVI) had opined that while the benefits of vaccination are “marginally greater,” there is “considerable uncertainty as to the magnitude of the potential harm.” The committee further acknowledged that the benefit margin against risk is “too small” to advise on a universal vaccination program for healthy children ages 12-15.
“As long-term data on possible adverse reactions accumulates, greater security may allow for reconsideration of benefits and harms. Such data may not be available for several months,” the JCVI said in an independent report. .
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