A first-of-its-kind study assessing COVID-19 mRNA vaccine safety in children 5 and under has reported no side effects associated with the vaccines.
However, an expert has questions about the study’s design, potentially impacting the findings’ validity.
The study authors reported one case of hemorrhagic stroke and one case pulmonary embolism but determined that these incidents were unrelated to vaccination due to preexisting congenital abnormalities. One case of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) was identified postvaccination, but this was dismissed as the child got COVID-19 after vaccination and before MIS-C diagnosis.
No cases of myocarditis or pericarditis were detected.
“Parents can be assured that this large study found no serious side effects from the mRNA vaccines,” Dr. Nicola Klein, a senior author of the study and director of the Kaiser Permanente Vaccine Study Center, said in a press release. Surveillance is still ongoing….