PFIZER’S COVID-19 SHOT CAUSES MOSTLY MILD SIDE EFFECTS IN YOUNG KIDS’

mage Credit: Reuters

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE's COVID-19 vaccine mainly caused mild side effects in children ages 5 to 11, according to data published by the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The data showed that some children were affected after the second dose of the vaccine reported injection site pain and other systemic reactions such as fatigue and headache.

The CDC said it had also received reports of 11 cases of myocarditis, a type of inflammation of the heart, in 511-year-old children who had received the vaccine. Of these, seven had recovered and four were recovering at the time of reporting.

Myocarditis is a rare side effect after mRNA vaccines.

Notification system for adverse vaccination events (VAERS).They received 4,249 adverse event reports, of which 97.6% of the cases were not serious, according to the CDC report.

The cases were reported between November 3 and December 19 through VAERS and vsafe, a voluntary smartphone-based security monitoring system for adverse events following COVID19 vaccination, in children in this age group.

The vaccine was approved in the United States in late October for children ages 5 to 15 and is the only approved vaccine for that age group.

A separate study by the CDC showed that Pfizer 92's two-dose vaccine was effective against coronavirus infections in teenagers aged 12 to 17 years.

The observation period for the analysis coincided with the period of dominance of the delta variant in the United States, the CDC said.