COVID 19 Vaccine for Adolescents. Concern about Myocarditis and Pericarditis.

Giuseppe Calcaterra,Gianfranco Butera,Pier Paolo Bassareo,Jawahar Lal Mehta,Vassilios Fanos,Cesare De Gregorio,Paola Neroni

doi:10.3390/pediatric13030061

Abstract

The alarming onset of some cases of myocarditis and pericarditis following the administration of Pfizer–BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA-based vaccines in adolescent males has recently been highlighted. All occurred after the second dose of the vaccine. Fortunately, none of patients were critically ill and each was discharged home. Owing to the possible link between these cases and vaccine administration, the US and European health regulators decided to continue to investigate the potential causal relationship between COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and myocarditis. In any case, none of the patients fulfilled the criteria for multi-system inflammatory syndrome or Kawasaki-like disease and there was no evidence of acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Highlights

Infection caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) has spread across the globe, causing almost 4 million deaths
Most reports relating to COVID-19 have focused primarily on adults, whereas several questions about children and adolescents infected by SARS-CoV-2 still remain unanswered [1,2]
On 10 June 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine adverse events reporting system (VAERS) released a detailed sentence, as follows: “The cases seem to have occurred predominantly in young adults (475 suspected myocarditis involving people younger than 30 years; 79 cases reported were in patients 16 or 17 years old and 196 cases among young adults aged 18–24)

Summary

Introduction

Infection caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) has spread across the globe, causing almost 4 million deaths. Most reports relating to COVID-19 have focused primarily on adults, whereas several questions about children and adolescents infected by SARS-CoV-2 still remain unanswered [1,2]. By 13 May 2021, coronavirus infected 3.94 million children and sent more than 16,000 to hospital; these numbers exceed those of people usually hospitalized for flu in an average year, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics [3]. At the time of this report, it appears that severe illness due to COVID-19 is rare among children. More and more data on the long-term impact of the pandemic are needed, including those about the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as the “emotional and mental health” effects [2,3,4,5]

Vaccines

Conclusions

Children and COVID-19