A new study published on Tuesday by the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed that the development of heart inflammation issues such as myocarditis and pericarditis following inoculation of an mRNA-based COVID vaccine is highest among adolescent males and young men.
The study analyzed data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) on reported cases of myocarditis following inoculation of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines between December 2020 and August 2021 among 192, 405 ,448 people aged 12 and above in the U.S., The Gateway Pundit reported. The data was processed by VAERS as of September 30, 2021.
The study revealed that the VAERS received 1,991 reports of myocarditis, of which 391 also included pericarditis after receiving at least one dose of mRNA-based COVID vaccine. It also received 684 reports of pericarditis without myocarditis. Among 1,991 reports of myocarditis, most or up to 1,626 met the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) case definition of confirmed myocarditis.
According to the study, the rates of myocarditis cases were observed to be the highest following the second dose of an mRNA vaccine in adolescent males between the ages of 12 to 25. The result was 70.7 per million doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine, as well as adolescent males aged 16 to 17 with 105.9 per million doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine. For young men aged 18 to 24, the rate was 52.4 and 56.3 per million doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine and the mRNA-1273 vaccine, respectively.
Results also showed that among 192, 405,448 people who received a total of 354,100,845 mRNA-based COVID vaccines during the given period, there were 1,991 reports of myocarditis to VAERS, with 1,626 of which met the case definition of myocarditis. Moreover, among those who had myocarditis, the median age was 21 years old and the median time to symptom onset was 2 days. Among myocarditis cases in which the sex was reported, males made up 82% of cases.
The findings of this new study reflect the results of a case-control study on almost the entire population of Hong Kong from February to August 2021, which shows there was a "slight but significant excess risk for myocarditis and, to a lesser degree, pericarditis" following inoculation of hte Pfizer vaccine, Medscape reported. Results similarly showed the highest risks were among adolescent and young males following their second dose of the mRNA vaccine.
Meanwhile, an October 2021 report based on an Israeli Ministry of Health database with data up to May 2021 showed that rates of myocarditis that appeared within 21 days of a second dose of the Pfizer vaccine among 16 to 19 year old individuals showed 1 per 6637 rate in males and 1 per 99,853 rate in females. Researchers estimated that following the first dose of the mRNA vaccine, there were 0.56 cases per 100,000 of myocarditis, a figure that rose to 8.09 cases per 100,000 following the second dose.
"The pattern observed, mainly following the second vaccination in males, suggests causality," researchers wrote in a supplement that came with their letter that was published on January 26 in the New England Journal of Medicine.
