An article on seven US teen boys in several states, published online today in Pediatrics, is among the latest reports of heart inflammation discovered after Covid-19 vaccination, though a link to the vaccine has not been proven.
The boys, aged 14 to 19, received Pfizer shots in April or May and developed chest pain within a few days. Heart imaging tests showed a type of heart muscle inflammation called myocarditis.
None were critically ill. All were healthy enough to be sent home after two to six days in the hospital and are doing “doing pretty well,” said Dr. Preeti Jaggi, an Emory University infectious disease specialist who co-authored the report. She said more follow-up is needed to determine how the seven fare but that it’s likely the heart changes were temporary.
Only one of the seven boys in the Pediatrics report had evidence of a possible previous Covid-19 infection and doctors determined none of them had a rare inflammatory condition linked with the coronavirus. The cases echo reports from Israel in young men diagnosed after receiving Pfizer shots.
“I think we’re in the waiting period where we need to see whether this is cause-and-effect or not,” said John Grabenstein of the Immunization Action Coalition, a former director of the Defense Department’s immunisation program.
The Pediatrics editorial said the heart inflammation cases warrant more investigation but added that “the benefits of vaccination against this deadly and highly transmissible disease clearly far outweigh any potential risks.”
Editorial co-author Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, head of an American Academy of Pediatrics infectious diseases committee, is involved in Pfizer vaccine studies, including a Covid-19 vaccine study in children.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted doctors last month that it was monitoring a small number of reports of heart inflammation in teens and young adults after the mRNA vaccines, the kind made by Pfizer and Moderna.
