[eesmith]

No vaccine is without safety issues. That's why so much research has been done to evaluate the safety issues. The consensus conclusion is the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks in this age group, including because the risk of myocarditis or pericarditis is higher for those who get COVID. For examples more recent than 2022:

"Although our meta-analysis revealed a higher risk than previously reported of myocarditis/pericarditis attributable to mRNA COVID-19 vaccines (among adolescent and young adult men), this does not negate the recommendation of COVID-19 vaccination for this population. Our previous study showed that the benefit of receiving the BNT162b2 vaccine or the mRNA-1273 vaccine was much higher than the risk of the vaccination across all age group and sex.59 Though the AR of myocarditis was assumed to be 12.1 per 100 000 for the primary series of the mRNA-1273 vaccine in men aged 18-29 years for the original benefit-risk calculations, if we updated the AR to 22.26 (2.84 after first doses plus 20.0 after second doses) per 100 000 for the primary series for men aged 18-24 years, based on the results of this current systematic review with meta-analysis, the benefits of vaccination would still far outweigh the risks in this age group." - Epidemiologic Reviews, 2025, 47, (1), 1–11 https://doi.org/10.1093/epirev/mxae007 Advance access publication date: December 13, 2024

"Compared with unvaccinated groups or unvaccinated time periods, the highest attributable risk of myocarditis or pericarditis was observed after the second dose in boys aged 12-17 years (10.18 per 100 000 doses [95% CI, 0.50-19.87]) of the BNT162b2 vaccine and in young men aged 18-24 years (attributable risk, 20.02 per 100 000 doses [95% CI, 10.47-29.57]) for the mRNA-1273 vaccine ... Young people’s risk of developing myocarditis is higher and longer lasting after covid-19 infection than after vaccination against it, the largest study of its kind suggests ... Over a six month period the researchers estimated that covid-19 infection led to 2.24 extra cases of myocarditis or pericarditis per 100 000 children and young people. This compares with 0.85 extra cases of myocarditis or pericarditis per 100 000 children and young people in those who were vaccinated." - BMJ 2025; 391 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r2330 (Published 05 November 2025)