Reacción a "The risk of myocarditis in children vaccinated against COVID-19 between in the United Kingdom was much lower than in those infected"

This important study uses whole population data-linkage to describe associations between both COVID-19 infections and receipt of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine and several cardiovascular conditions including blood clots and inflammation of the heart in children aged 5-18 years in 2020-2022.  They conclude that the risks of these complications were bigger and more long lasting following the infection than following the vaccination. 

While this information is important and would, of course, have been very useful if somehow it could have been known to policy advisers at the time, it is important to remember that it relates to the strains of SARS CoV2 that were circulating then (not the more benign strains circulating now) and to children most of whom had little or no immunity to the virus (unlike 5-18 years olds now, most of whom will have had the infection one or more times already). 

In general people justifiably expect the risks of vaccination of their children to be near non-existent and very much less than those of the disease being prevented, so this work encourages us to continue to improve the safety profile of the vaccines we develop to prevent this disease and potential future pandemic agents.