Toddlers and young children have a greater risk of seizing after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a study from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
FDA researchers admitted in a preprint paper that the risk of seizure was “significantly elevated.”
Within 24 hours of receiving the Moderna vaccine, children had a 2.5 greater chance of experiencing a febrile seizure. The incidence of seizures was greater during that period than in children 8-63 days after vaccination.
Similarly, children also had an elevated risk of febrile seizure after receiving a Pfizer-BioNTech inoculation.
“In this self-controlled case series that included participants aged 2-5 years from three commercial insurance databases, the incidence rate ratio of febrile seizures was significantly elevated in the 0-1 days following mRNA-1273 administration,” the researchers wrote. “Absolute risk was small.”
The paper noted that the “risk interval of 0-1 days” ensures that “febrile cases are more likely to be associated with vaccination rather than other causes.”
Despite the “significantly elevated” risk the COVID-19 vaccine presents in toddlers, the FDA concluded that the “safety profile of the monovalent mRNA vaccines remains favorable for use in young children.”
Children aged 12 and older are also at risk for experiencing swollen lymph nodes after COVID-19 vaccination, according to a Norwegian study. Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines for adolescents have been linked to anaphylactic reactions, lymphadenopathy, and appendicitis.
Some children were also at risk of developing epilepsy.
After receiving a second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, children were ten times more likely suffer a severe allergic reaction.
Within two weeks of the second vaccine, children were more than two times as likely to experience lymphadenopathy and seven times more likely to suffer myocarditis within three weeks of vaccination.
“Lymphadenopathy is a very common post-vaccination event,” the study noted.