Covid-19: Study that claimed boys are at increased risk of myocarditis after vaccination is deeply flawed, say critics
Clara Munro
Abstract
Covid-19: Study that claimed boys are at increased risk of myocarditis after vaccination is deeply flawed, say critics Clara MunroThe risk of 12-15 year old healthy boys experiencing cardiac adverse events such as myocarditis after their second dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is around four times adolescents' risk of being admitted to hospital as a result of infection with SARS-CoV-2, a preprint study has found. 1 However, the study has been widely criticised for mining data from an inappropriate source to deliver an antivaccine message, despite warnings against such data uses.The retrospective study, which has not yet been peer reviewed, used the US vaccine adverse reporting system (VAERS) to identify the rate of post-vaccination myocarditis among 12-15 and 16-17 year olds between January and June 2021 after the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.The researchers concluded that the rate of cardiac adverse events after the second dose exceeded the expected rate of 120 day covid-19 hospital admission at both a moderate (August 2021) and a high (January 2021) incidence of SARS-CoV-2 infection.They estimated that the rate of cardiac myocarditis after the second dose of the vaccine was 162.2 cases per million in healthy boys aged 12-15 years and 94.0 per million in those aged 16-17.For girls the rate was 13 per million in 12-15 year olds and 13.4 per million in 16-17 year olds.Nearly all (86%) of the boys affected needed some form of hospital care, the authors said.By comparison, at current infection rates the risk of a healthy adolescent being admitted to hospital within 120 days of infection in the US is estimated to be 44 per million.