11/11/2025
A new, large study on the effects of COVID infections and COVID vaccinations on children found that while COVID vaccines do increase the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis, that risk is very low (an increase of 0.84 cases per 100,000 children) and, critically, the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis from actually getting a COVID infection was higher (an increase of 2.24 cases per 100,000). Additionally, the risks from COVID infections lasted longer, and for some other conditions like inflammation, COVID vaccines reduced the risk (a reduction of ~2 in 100,000) whereas COVID infections increased the risk (an increase of ~17 per 100,000).
This adds to the already substantial body of evidence that COVID vaccinations reduce infection rates, infection severity, hospitalizations, and deaths.
In short, the risks associated with vaccines are very low and are, in fact, lower than the risks associated with getting COVID itself. Vaccines are a net good that save lives and prevent suffering.
Read the study here: https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(25)00247-0/fulltext -material
Note: One limitation of this study was the vaccinated and infected categories were not exclusive of each other, so people could be both vaccinated and infected. It is not clear to me why it was done that way, and I would be extremely interested in know the rates of these conditions for those who were vaccinated before becoming infected compared to those who were not vaccinated before becoming infected. Based on all the other studies showing that the vaccines reduce COVID symptoms even when someone becomes infected, my guess is that the rates would be lower among the vaccinated (which would also mean that the rates among the infected in this study would be higher without the vaccine), but that’s a guess and I’d like to see the data.
