Benefits of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines outweigh risk of vaccination, say experts in response to letter from doctors

• A group of doctors had called for the vaccination of youths to be halted while the US investigates the death of a teenager after getting his Covid-19 jab
• The expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination rebutted the doctors’ posts
• The committee pointed out information it said the doctors had omitted from their post
• It added that data on the risks of mRNA vaccines have not changed
• The expert committee continues to recommend the vaccines for young men

SINGAPORE — The expert committee on Covid-19 vaccination has reiterated its stance that the benefits of receiving messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) Covid-19 vaccines continue to outweigh the risks of vaccination. This was in response to another open letter from a group of doctors, this time calling for vaccination of youth to be halted.

The doctors had made the call in an open letter on social media, following reports of investigations by the United States Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC) into the death of a 13-year-old boy who was vaccinated with a second dose of an mRNA vaccine. The CDC is the US' national public health agency.

In a statement by the expert committee released by the Ministry of Health (MOH) on Sunday (June 27), the committee said that it was aware of the letter, which it noted has been attributed to a group of doctors, including one cardiologist.

In the post, the doctors had claimed that the 13-year-old boy had died from heart failure and highlighted recent international reports linking the second dose of mRNA vaccines to myocarditis in young men, the committee said.

Myocarditis is the inflammation of the heart muscle. Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines approved for Singapore's vaccination programme use mRNA technology.

On Monday, MOH issued an updated statement from the expert committee, containing some additional material.

“The said news report did not state death from heart failure as alleged and the matter is still under investigation by the US authorities," the committee added in the updated statement.

In the doctors’ post, they also cited information from slides presented to the US CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

In its updated statement, the committee noted, however, that the doctors failed to highlight a point raised in those same slides — that “available data indicate that patients generally recover from symptoms and do well”.

The expert committee added: “(The doctors) also failed to mention that subsequent discussions at the same meeting went on to support the vaccination of adolescents because the benefits outweighed the risks.”

Earlier on June 11, the committee had highlighted the possibility of a "small risk" of myocarditis and pericarditis — the inflammation of tissue surrounding the heart — associated with the second dose of the mRNA vaccines.

It had also assessed that the benefits of receiving the mRNA vaccines continue to outweigh the risks of vaccination.

"Data on myocarditis and pericarditis has not changed, and the expert committee’s assessment holds," it said in its updated statement. In the first statement, the committee used a slightly different form of words by saying its assessment on this matter “remains the same”.

TODAY has sought comment from MOH on the changed wording.

"The data reported from the US indicates that the cases of myocarditis following mRNA vaccinations are rare.

"In addition, among the small number of cases, almost all had resolved. Professional medical associations in the US, including the American College of Paediatrics and the American Heart Association in the US, have continued to strongly encourage vaccination in everyone aged 12 and older,” the committee said in the updated statement.

In the first statement, on Sunday, the committee said: “In addition, among the small number of cases, almost all had resolved with minimal intervention.”

TODAY has also asked MOH for comment on the removal of the words “with minimal intervention”.

In contrast to the rare instances of myocarditis following the mRNA vaccinations, research has shown that 22.9 per cent of children diagnosed with Covid-19 had been admitted to the intensive care unit and 3.6 per cent died, the committee said in its updated statement.

Those figures were taken from a meta-analysis of 129 studies from 31 countries involving 10,251 children.

Furthermore, young people who contract Covid-19 can also suffer Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children and other prolonged disabilities, the committee said.

“In the face of a more transmissible Delta variant associated with more severe Covid-19, it is imperative that we protect our children,” it said, adding that Israel has recently begun vaccinating teenagers after outbreaks in schools caused by the Delta variant.

The committee said that it continues to recommend the use of mRNA vaccines for young men.

“Nevertheless, we understand the anxiety parents face and hence, we endorse the Ministry of Health’s position to make vaccination voluntary in Singapore, even as it is strongly encouraged,” it added.

The letter from the doctors was signed by a group of five: Dr Wong Wui Min, Dr AM Chia, Dr LW Ping, Dr IW Yang and Dr Kho Kwang Po, a cardiologist and heart specialist.

Dr Chia and Dr Yang were among a group of doctors that on June 4 lodged a petition urging the Government to include Sinovac in the national vaccination programme.

The duo along with Dr Kho were also part of a group that in May wrote an open letter to parents asking them to think through carefully before choosing to inoculate their children against Covid-19. All but one of the 12 doctors who signed the letter later retracted their signatures.

A separate circulated WhatsApp message by Dr Gabriel Oon, who led Singapore's hepatitis B vaccination project in the 1970s and 1980s, said that mRNA vaccines are ineffective against the B1617 variant, now known as the Delta variant that was first detected in India.

In a separate Facebook post on Monday, Dr David Lye, director of infectious disease research at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID), criticised a “small group of doctors” whom, he said, were “misleading and misinforming the public”.

He was referring to the letter issued by the five doctors, as well as the earlier letter issued by 12 doctors questioning the efficacy of mRNA vaccines. He said that three doctors’ names were common to the two letters.