COVID-19 Vaccines Tied To Higher Risk Of Myocarditis/Pericarditis, Seizures Among Children, Data Suggest

MedPage Today (4/24, Kahn) reports, “Only myocarditis/pericarditis and seizures occurred at higher rates in adolescents and children vaccinated for COVID-19 when compared with historical rates of those outcomes, according to an analysis of safety data from the FDA’s Biologics Effectiveness and Safety (BEST) Initiative.” Data “revealed that myocarditis or pericarditis occurred at higher rates than before the vaccines were introduced among 12- to 17-year-olds after receiving the original monovalent Pfizer-BioNTech BNT162b2 (Comirnaty) vaccine...reported” researchers in JAMA Network Open. Additionally, they “detected a statistical signal for seizures after vaccination with the BNT162b2 vaccine among children ages 2 to 4 years and with the Moderna mRNA-1273 (Spikevax) vaccine among children ages 2 to 5 years.”