Dec 16, Reuters -- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday it had received eight cases of myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation in children aged 5 -- 11 years who received Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID 19 vaccine.
Reporting rates of myocarditis for boys aged 16 to 17 could be more than 69 cases per million second doses administered and around 40 cases per million second doses in boys aged 12 -- 15 years old, according to the CDC.
The CDC did not say whether it believes there is a link between the vaccine and myocarditis or the vaccine, or disclose the rate of myocarditis in the age group without vaccination.
The agency said there had been over 7 million vaccine doses in the 5 -- 11 age group at the time it examined the data, with 5.1 million first doses and 2 million second doses. The CDC said the cases had a mild clinical course.
The cases were reported in the U.S. The CDC presented a vaccine to a panel of experts on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System.