Are COVID-19 Vaccines Deadly for Children? Experts Clarify Claim Made by FDA Officials
The COVID-19 vaccines were designed during the deadly coronavirus pandemic to protect people of all ages from the serious illness. It helps the body build strong immunity, reducing the risk of severe symptoms and hospitalization. Expert doctors and health officials from across the world closely tested these vaccines to make sure they are safe and effective for most people. However, recent comments from some of the officials of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have triggered widespread concern. They claimed that COVID-19 vaccines were linked to the deaths of at least 10 children, but no reliable evidence has been presented yet.
The claims were made by Dr. Vinay Prasad, who leads the vaccine division of the agency, in an internal email sent to the FDA staff. Similar remarks were also made by FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary during an interview with Fox and Friends Weekend. Citing these reported deaths as justification, the agency even announced plans to strengthen the current vaccine safety rules. In his email, Prasad referred to myocarditis, a rare heart inflammation that has been linked to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. With this, he questioned the widely accepted notion that the overall benefits of vaccination are greater than the minor risks of this side effect, as clarified by the researchers and doctors long ago, as reported by the Tampa Bay Times.
Studies reveal that young males, especially those between the ages of 12 and 30 years, have the greatest chance of developing myocarditis after receiving the vaccine. In these cases, symptoms are most likely to appear within about two weeks after the second dose. But studies have reported that 81% of the people who experienced this recovered completely within about three months. Even kids who develop myocarditis after vaccination generally have a strong chance of full recovery. Speaking of this, Dr. Mark Schleiss, a pediatric infectious diseases specialist, also said, “No deaths, no debilitating illnesses, and no heart transplants have been observed.”
Moving ahead, a 2022 research report published by the National Library of Medicine showed that myocarditis was much more likely to occur in people who were infected with COVID-19 than in those who had received the mRNA vaccine. The illness carries about seven times more risk in this case. “Without question, the risk of myocarditis is vastly greater after infection than after vaccination,” Schleiss said. As reported by ABC News, Dr. Peter Hotez, a pediatrics professor at Baylor College of Medicine, also said, “mRNA vaccines for COVID, according to estimates from Yale School of Public Health, saved 3.2 million lives.”
He added, “So, I think it's unfortunate that anti-vaccine activists target mRNA vaccines as they do, but it is a good technology.” Meanwhile, data collected from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that since COVID-19 began, over 2,000 children and teenagers in the U.S. have lost their lives due to the virus. What's even more heartbreaking is that nearly 700 of those deaths were kids below one year old. It was also found that most children between the ages of 1 and 17 who died from COVID-19 during 2020 to 2022 had other health problems, too.
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