CDC panel finds ‘likely’ link between rare mild heart inflammation in adolescents and COVID-19 vaccine

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) safety panel said there is a “likely association” of mild heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults after they were vaccinated with an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

The initial cases of myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the membrane surrounding the heart, reported on the federal government’s tracking system were generally mild, especially compared to traditional myocarditis, scientists said.

Most cases have been mild, with symptoms like fatigue, chest pain and disturbances in heart rhythm that quickly clear up within a day or so.

Rarity: Officials said they are tracking about 1,200 initial reports of the rare heart inflammation following doses of mRNA coronavirus vaccines have been filed with the federal government’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), though they have not yet been definitively linked to the vaccines.

Most reports came from people in their late teens and early 20s, and many more occurred after the second dose than the first.