Vaccine or virus? CDC says vaccines are still safer for young people than risks of COVID

Leading health officials called heart inflammation an "extremely rare side effect, and only an exceedingly small number of people will experience it after vaccination."

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are safe for teens and young adults despite 323 confirmed cases of heart inflammation out of the more than 26 million young people who have received the shots, the nation's leading health experts concluded Wednesday. The move comes as regulators at the Food and Drug Administration said they were preparing a warning to go along with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to make young people aware of the very rare risk. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will continue to monitor the cases, but researchers at a CDC advisory committee meeting on vaccines Wednesday said the rare instances of heart inflammation occurred about 12.6 times out of every million second dose administered and were mostly among younger males about a week after the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Out of more than 26 million doses given to young people, the CDC has so far confirmed 323 cases of heart inflammation, called myocarditis or pericarditis, and is still monitoring more cases. Of the confirmed cases, the vast majority were temporary and resolved with monitoring and treatment.