Germany Recommends Only Pfizer Vaccine For People Under 30

(RTTNews) - German health authorities on Wednesday said that the Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine should be discontinued for people below the age of 30 as studies have shown that they are under a small risk of cardiac inflammation due to the vaccine. Instead, health authorities now recommend only the Pfizer vaccine for people aged below 30 years in the country.

The Stiko vaccine commission made these recommendations based on studies that the Moderna vaccine led to conditions like myocarditis or inflammation of the heart muscle and pericarditis or inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart in patients aged below 30.

The conditions were sighted in very few cases but the German health authorities were not taking risks as cases in the country have seen an uptick since the past few days. The commission said, "For people above the age of 30 there is no higher risk." The Stiko commission updated its coronavirus vaccine guidance and "recommends that people under 30 only be vaccinated with Comirnaty," the BioNTech-Pfizer jab. This decision comes a day after France also rolled out a similar decision. The commission advisory for Pfizer vaccine includes both the initial inoculations and booster jabs even if the first dose was that of Moderna. The Stiko commission said that its recommendations are based on the findings of Germany's Federal Institute for Vaccines and Biomedicines, which compiles data on side effects and complications.

The US has also not yet approved the Moderna vaccine for young people, even though last week the Pfizer vaccine was authorized for children ages five to 11 after studying the risks of heart problems.