“the bottom line is that the risk of a cardiac complication is extremely low.”
lougheed says cheo has “not seen a large number of kids to date with any of the cardiac complications or issues related to mrna vaccines”. no children have been hospitalized with heart complications related to immunization.
still, lougheed says she understands that some families are worried.
in addition to reassuring families, lougheed and others encourage them to bring their children to cheo if they have any symptoms such as chest pain or shortness of breath after being vaccinated.
and, while children often have milder cases of covid-19 when they do get infected, she notes that children can end up with serious complications. about one per cent of children who get covid-19 end up in hospital, she says, and about one-third of those children will end up in intensive care.
children can also suffer from multi-system inflammatory syndrome after infection, which can be serious. there have been a handful of such cases among children who had to be hospitalized at cheo during the pandemic. all have recovered.
“vaccine confidence is really essential in the management of this pandemic.” pham-huy says. “it is always concerning to hear of any rare or potential adverse events after vaccine, but we have to remember there are very severe adverse events with infection.”