Is Myocarditis a Very Rare Side Effect of the mRNA Vaccines
There are a growing number of reports of possible myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle and sac around the heart) in people following Pfizer and Moderna vaccinations The FDA has at least two extensive ways to detect adverse events from drugs and vaccines so they routinely receive reports to analyze. To determine if they are caused by vaccines, they try to determine whether the incidence of the adverse effect is higher than in non-vaccinated people. Myocarditis and pericarditis occur due to many viral/bacterial infections, drugs, and diseases (ex. collagen vascular diseases). Thursday the FDA had a day long meeting to look at reports from their vaccine safety systems, but more data must still be collected about each report from solicited medical records. Review of the preliminary reports found that the patients were in the younger age groups (12-39), and especially after vaccine dose 2. Myocarditis has been reported in all age groups that were vaccinated, but it was only in the 16-24 year old patients that the observed number of cases exceeded the expected number of cases in the general population. There were 2.8 cases/1million first doses and 16.1 cases/1million second doses in these two groups. See Below
The most common symptoms are chest pain and shortness of breath. Additional tests include cardiac enzymes and EKGs. Most symptoms are mild and recovery is quick with treatment with drugs like Motrin. 81% of patients recovered completely and many of the remaining 19% are of unknown status. This data is similar to reports from Israel and the US military following Pfizer vaccinations. Current US patients are young and more likely to be males - the same as with other causes for myocarditis. Millions of people have been vaccinated with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines demonstrating that huge clinical trials like theirs (44,000 and 30,000 respectively) can't pick up these very, very rare adverse effects. The FDA will continue to verify these reports next week and the independent scientists on the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will meet next Friday to discuss the benefit vs risk ratio of the mRNA vaccines going forward. They will also try to determine the risk of myocarditis/pericarditis from the Covid-19 infections alone.