Teens’ heart risk of COVID-19 far exceeds that of vaccination, study finds

Teens have a much higher risk of heart inflammation from COVID-19 than vaccines that protect it, new research shows.

“Comparative risk can complicate parenting decisions in such busy health debates,” said senior author Mendel Singer, vice president of education at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland.

“But our study shows that for parents concerned about their teens about myocarditis / pericarditis [heart inflammation], the safest choice is vaccination, ”he said in a college press release.

Singer and her colleagues compared the health records of 7,300 girls and 6,800 boys aged 12 to 17 nationwide who were diagnosed with COVID-19 in the United States to the same number in this group of who have had adverse events after receiving COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.

The risk of heart inflammation – myocarditis or pericarditis – in adolescent girls with COVID-19 was 21 times greater than their combined risk after the first and second doses of an mRNA vaccine.

In adolescents, the risk of heart inflammation was nearly six times higher with COVID-19 than with vaccination, according to results published this week in preprint server medRxiv. The study has not yet been peer reviewed.

“Even with our calculations done to qualify possible data gaps in this large dataset, our results still indicate a higher risk of myocarditis / pericarditis in adolescents who receive COVID-19,” said the co-author of the study, Dr. David Kaelber, a professor of internal medicine and pediatrics. He pointed out that he was also a worried father.

“Based on our findings, on my daughter’s 12th birthday, we went to get her vaccinated against COVID-19 to make sure she is protected and to protect other members of our family,” Kaelber said. . “With the highly contagious Delta variant circulating and the new school year approaching, now is a good time for parents to be reassured that vaccination is safer for their children than contracting COVID-19.”

Co-author Dr Ira Taub, a pediatric cardiologist at Akron Children’s Hospital Center in Ohio, said worried parents often turned to him for advice on vaccination. He responded with a warning.

“There are other consequences of contracting COVID-19, including the risk that adolescents can transmit the disease to vulnerable family members,” Taub noted. “I also stress that vaccination is safer than getting COVID-19.”

More information

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents.

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