Michigan boy dies in sleep three days after second dose of COVID-19 vaccine
Thomas McDonald
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating the death of a 13-year-old boy who died in his sleep three days after getting his second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
“The investigation as to whether there is a correlation between his death and vaccination is now at the federal level with CDC,” Saginaw County Health Department Medical Director Dr. Delicia Pruitt and Health Officer Christina Harrington said in a joint statement.
“Meanwhile, the health department continues to encourage families to speak with their physicians to weigh their own risks and benefits of vaccination,” the statement continued.
Jacob Clynick, lived in Zilwaukee and had just completed eighth grade when he got his second dose of the Pfizer vaccine June 13 at a Walgreens store, said his aunt, Tammy Burages.
Burages says Jacob was healthy and didn’t have any underlying health issues. He complained of some post-vaccine symptoms, including fatigue and fever. He also said he had stomach pains the night of his death, but they weren’t too severe and weren’t a cause for concern, she said. Jacob had just finished eighth grade and was preparing for his freshman year of High School.
Jacob’s funeral was June 26, just days after the CDC advisory committee acknowledged “a likely association” between the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines and the risk of heart problems, including inflammation, in adolescents and young adults.
The family was informed after the preliminary autopsy that Jacob’s heart was “enlarged” and there was “fluid around his heart” at the time of his death, according to Burages. However, the Michigan Institute of Forensic Science and Medicine, which was contracted as the medical examiner for Saginaw County would not confirm the preliminary findings.
“We can verify that we are managing the investigation, and that’s the extent of what I can share,” said Randy Pfau, director of operations at the Institute. He did confirm that doctors are communicating with the CDC regarding this case.
Pfau added that the final results for this case could take up to five months to be revealed. “I know the doctors are working on this case as a priority.”
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices found that among adolescents and young adults who got the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, there appears to be an association with cases of myocarditis and pericarditis.
Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle that can affect heart rhythm and its ability to pump. Pericarditis is inflammation of the sac or pericardium around the heart. These complications have been reported at a rate of 12.6 per million among people ages 12 to 39 within 21 days after the second dose of the vaccine.