Clinical symptoms
The most common clinical symptoms of vaccinated pediatric patients were found 27 had chest pain (35%), 25 had fever (32%), 6 had headache (8%), and 10 had fatigue (13%). All other symptoms are summarized in Table 3. In addition, the majority (71%) of symptomatic vaccinated pediatrics were males. The average length of hospitalization is 1-6 days. Although a number of diagnosed pediatrics with COVID-19 required ICU level care, the number of pediatrics who need ICU level care after vaccinations was only reported in one study to date (23).
Galindo et al. reported a study on the most common COVID-19 symptoms among pediatrics(31). Authors looked up at 333 pediatric patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 and found that fever, cough, and sore throat were listed as the most common symptoms. The signs and symptoms of the COVID-19 pediatrics were found to be noticeable to those who had the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine. The difference between vaccinated and non-vaccinated pediatrics is summarized in Table 4. For instance, fever presented in only 32% of vaccinated pediatrics compared to 56% of non-vaccinated and diagnosed COVID-19 pediatrics. No cough symptom was reported for the vaccinated group compared to 55% for non-vaccinated pediatrics. 17% of vaccinated pediatrics had muscle pain compared to 22% of non-vaccinated pediatrics. All other signs were also found milder in the vaccinated group. Statistically significant associations (P = <0.05) were found in two symptoms (fever and headache) between the vaccinated and non-vaccinated pediatric groups (Table 4). Fever and headache symptoms were found highly significant between the two groups (P = <0.001).
A substantial percentage of children who were diagnosed with COVID-19 are asymptomatic. However, Fever, nasal congestion/rhinorrhea, dyspnea, loss of smell and taste, cough, sore throat, diarrhea, nausea/vomiting, weariness, headache, myalgia, and poor feeding/poor appetite are the most common symptoms (14) (13). Ji et al. reported the only presenting diarrhea symptom in only one pediatric case (32). Additionally, Wei et al. reported that only 50% of 9 hospitalized newborns in China with confirmed COVID-19 had fever (33).
It is worth noting that vaccinated pediatrics presented clinical cardiac symptoms after the BioNTech-Pfizer vaccine, which were not reported before as one of the symptoms for non-vaccinated diagnosed COVID-19 pediatric and required more studies and health concerns.