Myocarditis?it sounds super scary and not like something you want your kid to have. And now that COVID vaccines for kids 5-11 are approved in both the U.S. and Canada, you?ve probably heard somebody mention it. But what, exactly, is myocarditis" And how much should you worry about it"
Myocarditis is a form of heart inflammation. In the vaccine rollout last spring and summer, some teens and young adults, particularly males, experienced myocarditis after receiving their doses. This occurred more often after the second dose and typically within four to five days of getting the vaccine. (Heart inflammation was also more common in those who had received the Moderna vaccine than the Pfizer vaccine.) Of course, this gave parents pause. Is the vaccine still a good idea" Parents of school-age kids?who don?t, for the most part, seem to get hit as hard by COVID?may be wondering if the vaccine is worth the myocarditis risk for them. It turns out the answer is a resounding yes. Here?s what we know so far about the risk of myocarditis in school-age kids from the COVID vaccine.
No kids in the Pfizer-BioNTech trial got myocarditis
So far, there is trial data on about 3,100 kids who have gotten the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the U.S., Finland, Spain and Poland and none of them got myocarditis after the vaccine. That?s not to say that once you start vaccinating more kids you won?t see some cases. For example, in Ontario, the rate of myocarditis and pericarditis?inflammatio...