The death of a Michigan teen after he received a COVID-19 vaccine is being investigated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, a spokeswoman for the agency told The Detroit News on Friday.
“CDC is aware of a 13-year-old boy in Michigan who died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccination,” spokeswoman Jade Fulce wrote in an email. “This case is currently under investigation and until the investigation is complete, it is premature to assign a specific cause of death.
“When a serious adverse event, like death, is reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) after COVID-19 vaccination, CDC requests and reviews all medical records associated with the case, including death certificates, and autopsy reports,” she added. “While some reported adverse events may be caused by vaccination, others are not and may have occurred coincidentally.”
Dr. Russell Bush, the medical examiner for Saginaw County, said Friday his office and the Saginaw County Health Department are looking into the death of 13-year-old Jacob Clynick of Zilwaukee, who died in his sleep after receiving a shot of a vaccine. Bush said they could not disclose which vaccine Jacob received or when he received it.
“We are currently looking at toxicology, tissue reports, blood work,” said Bush. “There will be discussions with the CDC and Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. Obviously, everyone is concerned with this case. We’re doing everything we can as far as testing and looking at potential problems related to the young man’s death.”
Bush said it’s going to be a “fairly long time” before that work is done and tests results come back.
Lynn Sutfin, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, said Friday that the MDHHS was alerted to the case by the Saginaw County Health Department.
Funeral services for Jacob, who was a student at Zilwaukee Elementary, were held June 26.
According to his obituary on https://deislerfuneralhome.com, he loved gaming and loved Pokémon. Jacob was “known for his jokes and had a meme for every occasion. But, what he really loved most was his family,” according to the obituary.
He is survived by his parents, Joseph Clynick and Courtney Jones; siblings, Gage, Cayden and Missy; grandparents, Kim Sloan and Don and Ann Clynick and many other relatives.
Federal officials have raised cautions about a rare side effect of some COVID-19 vaccines — chest pain and heart inflammation, mostly among teens and young adults.
The problem appears to be most common in young men after they receive their second of two doses, but it is nevertheless rare overall: There have been 323 confirmed reports of the inflammation in people younger than 30, and the vast majority recovered from their symptoms.
That risk “seems to me, and to many others, to be much lower than the risk of COVID,” said Dr. Brian Feingold, a University of Pittsburgh heart specialist.
And, in fact, late last month in an unusual joint statement, top U.S. government health officials, medical organizations, laboratory and hospital associations and others stressed the overriding benefit of the vaccines.
“The facts are clear: this is an extremely rare side effect, and only an exceedingly small number of people will experience it after vaccination. Importantly, for the young people who do, most cases are mild, and individuals recover often on their own or with minimal treatment,” the statement said.
Come back to detroitnews.com for more on this developing story.
Associated Press contributed.
bwilliams@detroitnews.com
Twitter: @oralandar_dn
