8 Young Kids Who Received Pfizer COVID Vaccine Had Heart Inflammation, CDC Says

Eight cases of heart inflammation have been reported in children aged 5 to 11 after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Heart inflammation, or myocarditis, is considered a rare but serious condition that can “reduce the heart’s ability to pump and cause rapid or irregular heart rhythms,” the Mayo Clinic’s website said.

Infection with a virus typically causes myocarditis, and in some cases, it can stem from a reaction to a drug, according to the health organization.

Symptoms in children can include fever, fainting, breathing difficulties, rapid breathing, chest pain and rapid or irregular heart rhythms.

The CDC did not indicate if there is a link between the Pfizer (PFE) COVID vaccine and heart inflammation cases in young kids. It was also unclear what the rate of myocarditis cases for children aged 5 to 11 who had not received vaccinations was.

However, the agency did say that over 7 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine had been administered to children aged 5 to 11 at the time that it began analyzing the data, with 5.1 million first doses and 2 million second doses inoculated, Reuters reported.

The CDC added that the cases had a mild clinical course, the news outlet said.

All eight child myocarditis cases were reported in the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which then goes before a panel of CDC expert advisors.

Previously, the CDC said that myocarditis cases for boys aged 16 to 17 could be more than 69 cases per million-second vaccine doses administered and about 40 cases per million-second vaccine doses in boys aged 12 to 15, Reuters said.

New research suggests that teens and young adults who develop heart inflammation after a COVID shot have mild symptoms and recover quickly.

The study, which was published in the journal Circulation, showed that of the 139 12- to 20-year-old patients who were participants in the research study, 19% were in intensive care, but none died. Most of the patients were hospitalized for two to three days.

“These data suggest that most cases of suspected COVID-19 vaccine-related myocarditis in people younger than 21 are mild and resolve quickly,” said the study’s first author Dr. Dongngan Truong, an associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Utah, as reported by UPI. “We were very happy to see that type of recovery.”

However, researchers of the study said in their conclusion, “Further studies are needed to better understand the timing of resolution of myocardial injury, mechanism of myocardial injury, and long-term outcomes.”

The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine received authorization for emergency use in kids aged 5 to 11 in October.

As of Friday's premarket hours, shares of Pfizer were trading at $60.50, down 75 cents, or 1.22%.