Govt-19: U.S. team studies heart problems in vaccinated youth

U.S. experts are set to meet in the United States on Wednesday to study about 300 cases of inflammation in the heart triggered after being injected with some COVID-19 vaccine, especially among adolescents or young adults.

These cases were found after vaccinations by Pfizer / Bioendech and Moderna, which are generally based on messenger RNA technology.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the country’s leading federal public health agency, has assembled independent experts to review myocarditis and pericarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle or heart, respectively. Heart.

“These cases are rare, and most of them (in them) have been settled with rest and attention,” Rochelle Valensky, director of the CDC, assured Thursday.

The meeting of the CDC’s Vaccine Advisory Committee (ACIP) was originally scheduled to take place last Friday, but had to be postponed due to a flash declaration of a public holiday in the United States.

“The CDC will present details of more than 300 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis associated with the CDC and the FDA (United States Medicines Agency, Editor’s Note), of which more than 20 million adolescents and young people have been vaccinated in the states. – United, ”Ms. Valensky explained.

“In recent months, we have asked practitioners to search and report cases of patients with symptoms of myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination,” he added.

The CDC “received detailed medical reports to confirm the diagnoses (…) to ensure in real time that our vaccines are safe”, and finally promised to “wait patiently for this important discussion”.

Such cases were first reported in Israel, where vaccination was faster than in most countries. The Israeli Ministry of Health in late May raised a “potential link” between the Pfizer vaccine and myocarditis in adolescents, noting that 95% are harmless.

A few cases have also been found in France.

Information from a public organization that allows anyone to report serious symptoms after a vaccine has been analyzed at a drug agency committee meeting two weeks ago in the United States.

According to these unconfirmed data, approximately 530 cases of myocarditis or pericarditis have returned after administration of the second dose of the Pfizer or Modern vaccine. More than half are between 12 and 24 years old, most of them men. The most commonly reported symptom is chest pain.

Under normal circumstances “the number of reported cases is higher than expected,” said Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, chairman of the CDC, during the presentation, but these data need to be verified.

“I’m worried, but I will point out that a cause and effect link has not yet been established,” Larry Rubin, director of the pediatric epidemiology department at the Cohen Pediatric Center in New York, told AFP.

“At our hospital, we found teenage boys with chest pain for a day or two after the second dose of the messenger RNA vaccine,” he testified.

But these cases were “relatively mild” and most were treated with anti-inflammatory drugs.

Although the link between the vaccine and heart attack has been proven, he believes the benefits of these vaccines outweigh the risks.

Although teens and young adults are at risk of developing severe cases of COVID-19, more than 2,600 people between the ages of 0 and 29 have died in the United States, according to health officials.

Lee Savio Pierce, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, told AFP that some children are “very ill” and have “long-term consequences” of the disease. “You can have very serious heart problems as a result of COVID-19 infection,” he added.

“I still advise vaccination for adolescents,” the expert said, not expecting a change in the recommendations for using the vaccine.

In the United States, the Pfizer vaccine is licensed at the age of 12 and the Modern vaccine at the age of 18.