The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the risk of heart inflammation in teenagers and young adults because the jab will reduce cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
In an appearance on ABC's Good Morning America on Thursday, Dr Rochelle Walensky discussed the nearly 500 reports of the heart inflammation, known as myocarditis, in people under age 30 vaccinated with Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.
The previous day, a CDC advisory committee concluded that there is a 'likely association' between the two.
But Walensky said the side effect is rare and that, if one million teenagers between ages 12 and 17 are vaccinated over the next four months, there will be between 30 and 40 cases of myocarditis.
'And, for that, if we were to vaccinate all one million, we would avert 8,000 cases of Covid, 200 hospitalizations, 50 ICU stays and one death,' she told host Cecilia Vega.
'And so we weigh the risks as well as the benefits - these extraordinary benefits of vaccines - as we make these recommendations and it's why we at CDC have made the recommendations to vaccinate.'
CDC director Dr Rochelle Walensky said the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines outweigh the risks of rare heart inflammation in teens and young adults because the shot will reduce cases, hospitalizations and deaths
As of Thursday, there have been 484 cases of myocarditis reported out of 90.6 million doses in Americans under age 30, manly after dose 2 and in males
According to a presentation released on Wednesday, the CDC's Vaccine Safety Technical (VaST) Work Group said there have been 484 preliminary reports of myocarditis or pericarditis in young people under age 30 as of June 11.
So far, 323 have been confirmed by CDC and 148 are still under review.
In total, 309 patients were hospitalized, of which 295 were
