Rare myocarditis after Pfizer appears to be mostly mild in teens

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-08-11 01:00

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Teenagers who develop the heart condition myocarditis, an extremely rare risk of the Pfizer vaccine, usually are not severely affected in the short term according to a small study in the US. Children as young as 12 can be vaccinated with Pfizer in the US, and researchers studied 15 patients under 19 who developed myocarditis within a month of their vaccination. 14 of the patients were male, with patients mostly developing chest pain and fever before presenting to hospital within 1-6 days of being vaccinated. The researchers say all patients in the study were mildly affected, however long term implications of the condition are unknown and larger studies are needed.