Anti-Covid vaccine: no obvious link with Pims, the pediatric generalized inflammatory syndrome

Cases of Pims, the pediatric generalized inflammatory syndrome that can appear following infection with SARS-CoV-2, have been detected in young vaccinated, but uninfected patients. Is the vaccine to blame? There is nothing to confirm this, according to a study published in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

After infection with SARS-CoV-2, children and adolescents may develop a syndrome generalized inflammatory syndrome called Misc or Pims (pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome). The disease is quite difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are similar to those of Kawasaki disease and several organs are affected by dysfunctions, in addition to a fever above 38°C which persists for several days. The state of health of young patients often requires hospitalization, but the vital prognosis is good.

One of the markers that is characteristic of Pims is the presence ofantibody directed against SARS-CoV-2, a sign of an old or recent infection. But several cases of Pims have been reported in children and adolescents who have not been infected with the coronavirusbut who have been vaccinated with vaccine of Pfizerthe only formula authorized for this age group.

Very rare cases of Pims after vaccination

These cases obviously drew the attention of the pharmacovigilance authorities who launched investigations to understand the extent of the phenomenon and the role of the vaccine in the onset of the disease. The scientists of Center for Diseases Control (CDC), in collaboration with other American universities, studied 21 cases of vaccinated adolescents with Pims, aged 12 to 20 years. All were hospitalized including 12 in intensive care. Fortunately, the disease did not cause any deaths and all patients were able to return home healthy.

The majority of them showed traces of past or recent infection with SARS-CoV-2, but for six of them no trace of infection was detected. Still, they developed a Pims. These 21 cases represent a drop of water among the more than 20 million children and teenagers vaccinated in the USA. Pims is triggered in one case for every 1 million individuals vaccinated and infected with the Covid-19. If we consider those vaccinated with no trace of past infection, it is 0.3 cases per 1 million vaccinated individuals, according to the CDC’s conclusions. In both cases, it is much less than theimpact inflammatory syndrome in unvaccinated infected with Covid-19: 200 cases per 1 million infected according to the latest calculations.

The evidence of the undemonstrated link with vaccination

If the temporality of the two events, the vaccination then the Pims, seems to indicate that the first triggers the second, nothing allows us to affirm that a causal link unites them. Indeed, the observations made here do not allow such a conclusion to be drawn.

” The contribution of vaccination to this disease is unknown “, write the scientists in the conclusion of their study published in The Lancet Child and Adolescent Heath. This first study on Pims after vaccination indicates that it is a very rare event. The health authorities obviously remain attentive to the appearance of new cases.