The U.S. Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday said reports of heart inflammation linked to the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have been much lower in 5- to 11-year-old boys than in adolescents and young men, representing only a slightly elevated rate than normal.
The agency, in a presentation to an advisory committee discussing on the need for booster vaccine doses for children, cited data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
The CDC said the rate of reports for myocarditis in VAERS in 5- to 11-year-old boys after the second dose of the vaccine was 2.7 cases per million. That compares with 48.1 cases per million in 12- to 15-year-old males and 74.2 cases per million in 16-and 17-year-old males.
The CDC said it observed no statistical signal for myocarditis in 5-11 year olds in an analysis of another safety database called Vaccine Safety Datalink (VSD).