Pain At The Injection Site To Myocarditis, These Are The Side Effects Of Pfizer's COVID-19 Vaccine In Children of 5-11 Years Old, According To The CDC

Illustration of a child's vaccination. (Wikimedia Commons/SELF Magazine)

JAKARTA - Pfizer Inc.'s COVID-19 vaccines, and BioNTech SE, mostly cause mild side effects in children ages 5 to 11, according to data published by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday.

The data showed that, after the second dose of vaccine, some children reported pain at the injection site and other systemic reactions such as fatigue and headache.

The CDC said it had also received reports of 11 cases of myocarditis, a type of inflammation of the heart, in children ages 5-11 who had received the vaccine. Of them, seven have recovered, and four are in recovery at the time of the report.

Citing Reuters on December 31, myocarditis is a rare side effect after administering the mRNA vaccine.

The US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) received 4.249 reports of adverse events, 97.6% of which were not serious, the CDC report said.

The cases were reported on VAERS and v-safe, a voluntary smartphone-based safety surveillance system for side effects following COVID-19 vaccination, between November 3 and December 19.

The agency said about 8.7 million doses of Pfizer's vaccine had been given to children in that age group.

The vaccine was passed in the United States for children ages 5 to 15 in late October, the only shot allowed for that age group to date.

A separate study by the CDC showed that Pfizer's two-dose vaccine was 92 percent effective against coronavirus infection in teens ages 12 to 17.

The observation period for analysis coincided with the period of dominance of the Delta variant in the United States, the CDC added.