PHOENIX — The Centers for Disease Control officially approved the Pfizer vaccine for children 5-11 Tuesday. The ABC15 Health Insider is addressing concerns and questions some parents have before getting their children vaccinated.
One of the most common questions is if there will be long term effects from the vaccine on children? Our Health Insider, Dr. Shad Marvasti says no. While all the studies have been short term so far and we can't know all of the potential long term side effects if any, he says we do know about the real and present risks of getting COVID and the increased risk of long Covid for children with the Delta variant. The vaccine has proven 90% effective in preventing children from getting the virus.
According to the CDC, in 2020 700 kids died from COVID-19 compared to 200 in a typical, pre-pandemic flu season.
Dr. Marvasti says the vaccine has not caused any negative effects on fertility in adults, but getting COVID-19 has, and the same would hold true for kids.
Another topic going around is the risk of myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, in kids and he says it's rare.
"The risk is higher in adolescence and most likely will be higher in children. Still, even when we say higher it's a very rare side effect. And it's also one of those side effects that's pretty easily resolved with anti inflammatory medications and just a tincture of time." said Dr. Marvasti.
According to a study in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA, the risk of myocarditis is 17 per 100,000 for teen boys after vaccination and there were no instances in kids ages 5-11 in the study.
Bottom line, kids are more likely to get COVID-19 than a side effect from the vaccine.
