Examining Pediatric Myocarditis Risk with COVID-19 Vaccination with Matthew E. Oster, MD, MPH

In late January, a team of investigators from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported findings from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) indicating a significantly low risk of myocarditis following vaccination with either available messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine for COVID-19 in persons aged 24 years and younger.Cases of the inflammatory heart event occurred 1626 times after an mRNA vaccine dose in US patients from December 2020 to August 2021.Though the prevalence of myocarditis was deemed significantly low (.0000046%), it is something that Dr. Matthew E. Oster,MD, MPH, of the CDC and the Emory University School of Medicine says is worth taking note of. Dr. Oster spoke of how the CDC is monitoring these events, as well as the risks to cardiac health that patients who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19 face.