Mônica Bergamo: Vaccine did not cause a reaction in a child from Lençóis Paulista, says SP Government

The São Paulo State Health Department concluded this Thursday (20) that the Covid-19 vaccine was not the cause of cardiac arrest in a 10-year-old child, notified in Lençóis Paulista, in the interior of the state. She had received the Pfizer immunizer, indicated for her age group.

The post-vaccination adverse event was ruled out after analysis by the Epidemiological Surveillance Center of the folder, carried out by more than ten specialists. “There is no causal relationship between vaccination and the clinical picture presented, therefore, the post-vaccination adverse event is ruled out”, reads the conclusion of the report.

The analysis showed that the episode was triggered by a rare congenital disease, hitherto unknown to the family. The child has already had the condition reversed and is still hospitalized, but stable.

One point that caught the attention of experts was the short interval between vaccination and the onset of symptoms — less than 12 hours. The elapsed time would not support the hypothesis of a myocarditis triggered by vaccination, according to the investigation.

In a note, the Health Department says that it reinforces the importance of vaccination and “reaffirms that all immunizing agents approved by the National Health Surveillance Agency [Anvisa] are safe and effective”.

The investigation of the case was conducted jointly by the Immunization Division of the state and the Epidemiological Surveillance Groups of Botucatu and Bauru, in addition to the municipality of Lençóis Paulista.

The diagnosis revealed a pre-excitation on the child’s electrocardiogram, which, according to the secretary, is a characteristic of Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome.

“This is a congenital condition that causes the heart to have tachycardia crises. Some of these crises can have a very high frequency, leading to syncope or even sudden death”, he explains in a note.

The information that a child had changes in heart rate after taking the vaccine against Covid-19 led the City Hall of Lençóis Paulista, in the interior of São Paulo, to suspend the campaign to immunize children on Wednesday (19).

The decision was made by Mayor Anderson Prado (DEM) after circulating a report that a child with asthma would have had changes in heart rate and, according to the parents, passed out about 12 hours after the vaccine was administered.

In a note released on social media, the City Hall of Lençóis Paulista stated that it chose to suspend childhood vaccination for seven days even before having access to the child’s medical record.

On December 16, Anvisa authorized the use of the Pfizer vaccine to immunize children aged 5 to 11 years. The immunizer was already approved for other age groups.

The vaccination campaign for children was opened last Friday (14), in São Paulo. The first immunized was Davi Seremramiwe Xavante, an 8-year-old indigenous boy.

The vaccination of children and adolescents is a sensitive topic in the Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government, as the president distorts data and discourages the immunization of young people. He even threatened to expose the names of Anvisa servers who approved the use of Pfizer vaccines in children.

_{JOELMIR TAVARES (interim), with LÍGIA MESQUITA, BIANKA VIEIRA e MANOELLA SMITH} ​