The real risk of heart inflammation to kids is from COVID-19—not the vaccine

Elizabeth Brown, a mother of two who lives outside Denver, Colorado, had a tough decision to make when childhood COVID-19 vaccines became available. Her five-year-old was born with a congenital heart defect that required a risky surgery when he was two years old to avoid a lifelong risk of heart inflammation from infection. But Brown also knew that after getting some COVID-19 vaccines, adolescent boys are at risk of developing myocarditis, a different kind of inflammation of the heart. ”To read about children with no cardiac history having myocarditis as a pediatric vaccine complication was scary,” Brown says. “There were a lot of inflammatory headlines from the media that preyed on a parent’s fear in terms of the vaccination and very little information readily available regarding the damage COVID can do.”