The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will hold an emergency meeting next Friday to address the increasing number of reports of heart inflammation, called myocarditis and pericarditis, particularly among young males, following the second dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccinations. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccinations fall into this category.

According to a fact sheet published on the CDC’s website, most of the cases involve “male adolescents and young adults age 16 years or older” and happened more frequently following the second dose rather than the first. Additionally, this condition occurred “within several days” of the vaccine.

(The CDC defines myocarditis as “inflammation of the heart muscle” and pericarditis as “inflammation of the outer lining of the heart.”)

Shimabukuro based his discussion on cases of myocarditis/pericarditis that were reported to VAERS, the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, on or before May 31.

At that time, 12 million people in this age group had been vaccinated.

Across all age groups, myocarditis or pericarditis was reported in 488 people who received the Pfizer vaccine and 301 who received the Moderna, for a total of 789.

Of those, 226 met the CDC working case definition. And 285 of the cases had a “known disposition,” according to the FDA media release. Of those, 270 had been discharged and 15 were still hospitalized, three of whom were in an intensive care unit.

“It’s a bit of an apples to oranges comparison because again these are preliminary reports,” Shimabukuro told the group. “Not all of these will turn out to be true myocarditis or pericarditis reports.”

The CDC fact sheet indicated that, given the number of vaccine doses administered, these heart issues are rare.

Fox News’ Tucker Carlson had a quite different take on this news. He is concerned that the Biden Administration may be downplaying the potential threat to young people.

“[I]t’s possible that healthy young people will much more likely to be harmed by the vaccine, than by COVID itself. That would be a disaster. In fact, it would be the definition of a preventable disaster.”

“What are the long-term effects of forcing these drugs on millions of young people, many of whom don’t need it?” Carlson asked. “We don’t know the answer. We don’t know what the long-term effects are. Anyone who claims to know is lying. At this point, there’s literally no way to tell.”

He also pointed out that, “At some schools, the mandate applies only to students. For reasons no one has explained, or could possibly defend, it does not apply to faculty and staff. They’re not required to be vaccinated.”

Carlson then played a clip of President Joe Biden promising that the vaccine was safe. Biden is saying, “The bottom line is this — I promise you: They are safe. They are safe. And even more importantly, they’re extremely effective.”

Israel, he tells viewers, began vaccinating students in January. Citing a study released this week by Israeli health officials, he reported that young people, particularly males, were developing myocarditis at high rates. “Researchers determined that the incidence of myocarditis in vaccinated young men was fully 25 times the usual rate. Some of them died.”

He also cited a doctor in Canada who has found a similar trend among his patients.

So, is the COVID-19 vaccine safe for adolescents or should they steer clear of it? It’s too early to tell. These vaccines were approved by the FDA for Emergency Use Authorization.

If I had an adolescent son or daughter who was being required to take the vaccine, I sure as heck would do some research first.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

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