Research in Britain finds a higher rare risk of heart complications in children than coronavirus if they have not been vaccinated.
According to a new study, the results of which were published on Wednesday (05.11.2025) in Britain, underage patients are more likely to experience problems after being infected by the coronavirusrather than experiencing side effects after vaccination.
Vaccinating children and teenagers against Covid is a good public health measure, according to a new study published today (05/11), which found that young patients are more likely to develop problems after contracting the virus than to experience side effects after being vaccinated.
In people under the age of 18, “a first infection with Covid-19 is associated with rare but serious health risks that persist for several months,” summarizes the study, published in the scientific journal “The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health” and is based on retrospective data from several million young British patients between 2020 and 2022.
In contrast, “the risks observed after a first vaccination are limited to the period immediately after it and are significantly lower than after a SARS-CoV-2 infection,” the authors continue, clarifying that this refers to the vaccine Pfizer.
What the study says about coronavirus vaccines
This study provides some answers to a particularly sensitive question since the beginning of the Covid pandemic in the early 2020s: should younger people be vaccinated, given that the risks associated with infection from SARS-CoV-2 do they appear to be much smaller than those experienced by the elderly?
Indeed, mRNA vaccines – her vaccine Pfizer and her vaccine Modernwhich is now largely absent from vaccination campaigns – can, in rare cases, cause heart problems.
However, according to the published study, the cardiac risks from Covid infection are significantly higher, even in young people, than those associated with Pfizer’s vaccine.
Among the complications the authors of the study mention “thromboembolism, thrombocytopenia, myocarditis and pericarditis”.
These results “support the idea that continued vaccination among children and youth is an effective public health measure”they conclude.
However, while the authors were able to assess the consequences of infection in all people under 18 years of age, they did so only for vaccination in people aged 5 to 18 years, as vaccination remains very rare in very young children.
Most importantly, these conclusions “relate to the Covid strains that were circulating at the time and not the less dangerous ones that are circulating now,” the pediatrician clarified. Adam Finnwho was not involved in the study, however, commented to the UK Center for Science Media.