CDC Holding Emergency Meeting over Cases of Heart Inflammation Disorder in Young Coronavirus Vaccine Recipients

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is holding an “emergency meeting” this week, June 18, to discuss cases of heart inflammation disorders among young people after receiving a vaccine for the Chinese coronavirus.

A CDC presentation via the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) detailed the preliminary findings in a slideshow presentation on vaccine safety updates for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), although it notes the findings and conclusions “do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).”

One of the topics covered was the emergence of myocarditis and pericarditis following mRNA vaccinations, reporting 475 cases in patients younger than 30.

However, according to the presentation, 226 of the 475 case reports actually “meet CDC working case definition; follow-up and review are in progress for remaining reports.”

“[Two hundred eighty five] of 475 case reports had known disposition at the time of report review,” the report reads, noting that 270 patients have been discharged, and 15 are still hospitalized, with three remaining in the intensive care unit.

“It’s a bit of an apples-to-oranges comparison because, again, these are preliminary reports,” Dr. Tom Shimabukuro, a CDC vaccine safety official, said. “Not all these will turn out to be true myocarditis or pericarditis reports.”

As the Hill noted, “a causal link to mRNA vaccines and heart inflammation issues has yet to be established, and health officials maintain the benefits of receiving the critical shot outweigh the risks.”

Those non-traditional vaccines are different in that they prompt the cell to create a “spike protein,” thereby triggering an immune response in the body.

Notably, Pfizer is now working on clinical trials of the vaccine in children 6 months to 11 years old. Moderna, the other mRNA vaccination, has filed for Emergency Use Authorization for its coronavirus vaccine in adolescents.

“We are pleased to announce that we have submitted for an emergency use authorization for our COVID-19 [Chinese coronavirus] vaccine with the FDA for use in adolescents in the United States,” Stéphane Bancel, Chief Executive Officer of Moderna, said in a June 10 statement:

We are encouraged that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine was highly effective at preventing COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 infection in adolescents. We have already filed for authorization with Health Canada and the European Medicines Agency and we will file with regulatory agencies around the world for this important younger age population. We remain committed to helping to end the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the CDC, over 173 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a vaccine, representing 52.4 percent of the population. Of those, over 74 million of those considered “fully” vaccinated got the Pfizer shot, over 57 million got the Moderna shot, and over 11 million went for the Johnson & Johnson option.