Friday, Jun. 25, 2021
Has the CDC warned that young people should not get a COVID-19 vaccination because of heart-inflammation risks?
The Centers for Disease Control continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccinations for all adolescents and young people as “potential benefits outweigh the potential risks,” even after scattered preliminary reports of heart inflammation with a few days of getting the shot.
“These reports are rare, given the hundreds of millions of vaccine doses administered,” the agency says. As of June 21, 2021, the CDC says it has confirmed 393 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis in people, mostly male, aged 30 or younger (out of 616 reports). It is working to confirm if there is any relationship to the vaccines.
The CDC has stated that patients who develop heart inflammation following vaccinations generally experience a full recovery.
The Food and Drug Administration plans to add a warning about the rare risk of heart inflammation to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccine fact sheets.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Centers for Disease Control Myocarditis and pericarditis following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination
- Centers for Disease Control Selected adverse events reported after COVID-19 vaccination
- Centers for Disease Control COVID-19 vaccine safety updates (June 23, 2021)
- Reuters FDA to add warning about rare heart inflammation to Pfizer, Moderna vaccines
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