INDIANAPOLIS — Millions of American teenagers are already fully vaccinated against COVID-19, but as the vaccine roll out continues, some are concerned about rare side effects, like myocarditis.
The Centers of Disease Control and Prevention said the side effect that causes heart inflammation is confirmed in more than 300 cases of Americans under 30 recently vaccinated against COVID-19.
On Friday, the CDC will meet to discuss the case data and make future recommendations.
“All the physicians and scientists are amazed at the massive amounts of data points we have and the incredibly small numbers of side effects and adverse reactions,” Dr. Elaine Cox with Riley Hospital for Children said.
The infectious diseases doctor said she is not expecting any surprises from the CDC’s emergency meeting.
“Never, ever have we had any clinical trial with hundreds of millions of doses of vaccine. There’s no way clinical trials can reach those numbers and with COVID we have hundreds of millions of people who have been vaccinated. We have huge amounts of data points that show the risk from the vaccine is minimal,” Cox said.
Maria Beck was a part of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine trials. WRTV first introduced you to the 13-year-old back in March when she volunteered for the Moderna vaccine trial for 12-17 year olds.
“Pain is temporary but like, this is forever like you’ll be vaccinated, and you’ll be safe,” Beck said.
When her age group became eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, she was unblinded and found out she got the placebo.
“I like, the next day got the Pfizer shot, so it wasn’t that big of a difference for me,” Beck said.
Her mom, Joanne Kehoe said three of her four kids are vaccinated against the virus, only because her youngest child is not old enough yet.
“As soon as it’s available, she’s getting it. We’ve all done fine with it, everybody,” Kehoe said.
Things like myocarditis, Kehoe said, is not a worry.
“The side effects that could be dangerous are so, so rare. I mean we do things every day that more dangerous than getting that vaccine,” Kehoe said.
So, the question here is: Should parents wait?
“No, I would not and the reason I say that again is your child could get COVID and your child could get myocarditis from having COVID, along with a number of other things and 500 out of 20 million — those odds are really good,” Cox said.
