The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is refusing to release updated information on reported cases of myocarditis and pericarditis following COVID-19 vaccination.
COVID-19 vaccines can cause the inflammatory conditions, the CDC previously confirmed.
The agency has regularly conveyed the number of post-vaccination myocarditis and pericarditis cases reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which it helps manage, as it has consulted with its advisers on updates to the vaccines.
But during a meeting on Sept. 12, the CDC didn’t mention VAERS data.
Asked for the information, a CDC spokesman pointed to a CDC study that covers data only through Oct. 23, 2022.
That study identified nine reports of myocarditis or pericarditis following vaccination with one of the bivalent COVID-19 vaccines, which were introduced in September 2022. Seven of the reports were verified by medical review.
Asked for more current data, the spokesman acknowledged that the agency has it but isn’t making it public.