Major Study of 1.7 Million Children Finds Myocarditis Only in Kids Given COVID-19 VaccinesSince the authorization of COVID-19 vaccines for children and adolescents in 2021, health officials have reassured the public that vaccine-related heart inflammation–myocarditis and pericarditis–is rare and claimed children were at a higher risk1 of developing myocarditis from the virus.However, in a recent preprint study2 involving over 1.7 million children, researchers found that myocarditis and pericarditis occurred only in vaccinated children, raising serious questions about the risk-benefit analysis used to justify widespread vaccination in younger populations.The large-scale study utilized data from the OpenSAFELY-TPP database, a resource that tracks health outcomes in a large population of children and adolescents across England. Researchers followed children aged 5 to 15 and compared those who received one vaccine dose to unvaccinated controls and those who received two vaccine doses with those who received a single dose.
