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Israel will Rule on Heart Inflammation and Adolescent Vaccinations Next Week

May 25, 2021

On Thursday, a senior health official in Israel said that the nation will release its findings on cases of heart inflammation in recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine. After that, it will decide whether to approve vaccination of youngsters between the ages of 12 and 15. In April, Israel’s Health Ministry said that a small number of such cases were being examined. These included people who had been given the Pfizer and BioNTech coronavirus vaccine. A similar statement was made by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) earlier this month. The head of public health, Sharon Alroy-Preis, said that they would disclose their final report, which will indicate whether it is really linked to the vaccine and the implications of it.

Speaking to Army Radio, she said that the report will be made public in the next week and then they will make the most responsible recommendations to the citizens of Israel. She added that ultimately, it would be the decision of the parents to inoculate their children or not. She said that she would immediately vaccinate her 15 year-old son, as soon as the inoculation is authorized. One of the experts who are part of the investigating panel, Dror Mevorach said that their inquiry also includes comparing cases of myocarditis amongst vaccinated patients, which refers to the inflammation of the heart muscles. 

These are compared with those who have not been jabbed, along with data from the previous years, before the coronavirus pandemic. Serving at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem as the head of internal medicine, Mevorach said that most of the 20 myocarditis cases they had dealt with were found amongst healthy males. The average age of these patients was 22 and the cases occurred around one to four days after they received the second dose of the vaccine. Mevorach had also been charged with the responsibility of overseeing the COVID-19 units of the hospital.

He said that almost all patients suffering from heart inflammation had had light symptoms and were able to make a full recovery. No announcement has been made by the Health Ministry as yet about the number of myocarditis cases that were detected in total in more than 5 million people who were vaccinated in Israel. According to Israeli media, a total of 100 patients had been detected. Almost half of the nation’s population has been vaccinated in the quick rollout.

There are 20 new coronavirus cases found daily, on average, and this number has been steadily dropping, even as the economy is opening up and most of the restrictions are being lifted. The fact that Israel is no longer dealing with a raging pandemic has shifted the risk-benefit analysis in deciding whether to vaccinate adolescents or not. Mevorach said that as of now, there is no emergency situation in Israel due to which they can take the time to investigate deeply and then come to a conclusion about whether they should or shouldn’t vaccinate the children in order to reduce the risk. 

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