The US’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has added a warning to the covid vaccine for Moderna and Pfizer regarding the rare heart inflammation. On Friday, FDA added the warning for the recipients of the said two vaccine.
The administration also presented fact sheets for Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which indicate a rare heart condition which causes heart inflammation. For each vaccine, the revised fact sheets have included warning about Myocarditis (inflammation of heart muscle) and Pericarditis (inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart).
As advised by FDA, vaccine recipients should seek immediate medical attention if they experience “chest pain, shortness of breath, or feelings of having a fast-beating, fluttering, or pounding heart after vaccination.”
FDA said, “This update follows an extensive review of information and the discussion by CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting on Wednesday. The data presented at this meeting reinforced the FDA’s decision to revise the fact sheets and further informed the specific revisions.”
As per the updated warning, the symptoms of these conditions may appear within a few days after receiving the shot. However, the medical experts still claim that the benefits of these vaccines outweighs the side effects.
Janet Woodcock, the acting FDA commissioner, said in a statement, “The risk of myocarditis and pericarditis appears to be very low given the number of vaccine doses that have been administered.” She added, “The benefits of Covid-19 vaccination continue to outweigh the risks, given the risk of Covid-19 diseases and related, potentially severe, complications,”
Recently, cases of rare heart inflammation were reported among those vaccinated citizens, who received either Moderna of Pfizer vaccine for Covid. According to the reports, there have been more than 1200 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis. The rare heart condition is observed in the recipients of the said vaccines, who fall in the category of 30 years old and below. As per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “CDC) data, about 300 million shots had been administered as of June 11, out of which, only 12.6 heart inflammation cases per million doses were found (for both vaccines combined).
Currently, both CDC and FDA are monitoring the reports of these adverse outcomes of Covid vaccines and they will follow up to assess longer-term outcomes.