Medical experts and the authorities, in general, are trying to convince the world to get vaccinated. However, other news occurs claiming that receiving a jab might not be a good idea, at least in some cases.
According to The Guardian, US researchers are now claiming that teenage boys have higher chances to be hospitalized because of a rare side-effect of the COVID vaccine developed by Pfizer/BioNTech than because of the coronavirus itself. The side-effect in question is myocarditis, meaning an inflammation of the heart.
Boys aged 12 to 15 years old are at risk
The data analyzed shows that young boys between the ages of 12 to 15 years old are 4-6 times more likely to develop vaccine-related myocarditis than to get hospitalized for COVID over a period of four months.
Dr Tracy Høeg at the University of California, together with colleagues, analyzed adverse reactions to COVID vaccinations for young people aged 12 to 17 years old for the first half of 2021.
Saul Faust, who is a professor of infectious diseases and pediatric immunology at the University of Southampton, and who wasn’t involved in the new study, declared as quoted by TheGuardian.com:
While myocarditis after vaccination is exceptionally rare, we may be able to change the first or second doses or combine vaccines differently to avoid the risk at all, once we understand the physiology better,
On balance, there is no urgency to immunise children from a medical perspective, although if schools are unable to maintain education for the vast majority at all times, the overall balance could shift. If my two teenage children are offered the vaccine by the NHS my GP wife and I will have no hesitation in allowing them to receive the vaccine.
The latest study has yet to be peer-reviewed.
