Thread by @teaandreverie

By now you've heard reports of myocarditis & pericarditis in recipients of mRNA or Pfizer & Moderna vaccines.

There’s a headline floating around about a *CDC emergency meeting*

I KNOW Y’ALL ARE GONNA BUY INTO CLICKBAIT HEADLINES so let’s just get right into this shall we 🧵1/n

The @CDC confirmed 221 cases of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination in people 30 and under of 141.5 M fully vaccinated people in the US.

Of the 221 cases:
81% fully recovered
41 still have symptoms
15 are still hospitalized
3 are in the ICU (2 have prexisting conditions) 2/n

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle. Pericarditis is inflammation of the outer lining of the heart. They occur when the immune system reacts to an infection or another trigger but often, no cause is found. Symptoms are: shortness of breath, chest pain & fatigue. 3/n

The recent reports of myocarditis after COVID-19 vaccination were seen:
•in teens age 16 or older and young adults,
•more often in males than females,
•more often following dose 2 than dose 1, and
•typically within 4 days after vaccination. 4/n

healthychildren.org/English/tips-t…

Tom Shimabukuro MD, MPH, the deputy director of the CDC's Immunization Safety Office - at a meeting of an expert panel that advises the US FDA on vaccines stated the numbers were approximately 16 cases for every 1 million people who got a second dose 5/n
medscape.com/viewarticle/95…

The Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System, or VAERS, is a database of health problems reported after vaccination. This reporting system is open to anyone so that there's no way to know if problems reported were caused by the vaccines or a coincidence. People also spam it. 6/n

Dr. Shimabukuro said they are actively investigating and confirming each report they get. The CDC has analyzed a total 475 cases of myocarditis after vaccination in people under age 30 that were reported to VAERS. 7/n

Israel’s health ministry also investigated a link between rare instances of heart inflammation & the Pfizer vaccine. They found the incidence of myocarditis after vaccination was 50 cases per million for men ages 18 to 30. 8/n

(that thumbnail tho 😬)
medscape.com/viewarticle/95…

We don't yet know exactly what the cause is, we can still treat myocarditis with NSAIDS like Ibuprofen, steroids and rest. Children can become infected with COVID and get very ill. Thousands have been hospitalized, and hundreds have died after being infected with the virus. 9/n

Some children who have recovered from COVID-19 continue to experience lingering symptoms. COVID-19 itself is known to cause myocarditis. So until definitive links are made, health officials STILL recommend Covid-19 vaccinations for everyone ages 12 and older. 10/n

And yes the high incidence is certainly worthy of further scrutiny. The CDC will indeed hold a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on June 18 to look at the evidence & assess the risk of myocarditis following vaccination. So I will update this thread 11/n

In conclusion, please read past the headlines. The benefits still outweigh the risks, COVID 19 is still far more dangerous.

So go get vaccinated.

Here are some more sources:
cdc.gov/coronavirus/20…

aappublications.org/news/2021/06/1…

yalemedicine.org/news/myocardit…

12/n

#ThisIsOurShot

Also unfortunate that I tagged @CDC when I meant to tag @CDCgov but you all knew that already #awkward

Here is also a pre-publication release FROM TODAY of a case report looking at 7 adolescent male patients who presented with symptomatic myocarditis after their Pfizer vaccine and all had full recovery in the Journal of the @AmerAcadPeds:

pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/pediat…

13/n

Just to contextualize 221: I'm linking the whole presentation by Dr. Shimabukuro and the slide I referred to so feel free to check it out.

221 is the number which they had any recovery data for. The other numbers are present here as well.

14/n

fda.gov/media/150054/d…

https://twitter.com/teaandreverie/status/1404106246295334913