nate33 wrote:tontoz wrote:dobrojim wrote:It seems like they (FDA) are being especially cautious about approving the vaccine(s) for under 12.
I understand why but am still impatient. I'm not enough of an immunologist to understand
the special issues that pediatric vaccine use presents. That said, we know (or remember ourselves)
that vaccines, for most folks, are a recurring part of growing up.
Yeah I don't get the outrage a vaccine mandates. We all had to take a laundry list of vaccines to attend school.
For me, it's the risk/reward profile, particularly for children.
In all of our other mandated vaccines, the risk of death from the disease is several orders of magnitude greater than the risk of death from Covid (for kids). Not even 500 kids out of 80 million have died of Covid so far. That's less than 6 per million (or about 30 per million of those who have actually contracted Covid). And the number of deaths of healthy kids without comorbidities is less than 1 in a million.
Meanwhile, the health risks of the vaccine are orders of magnitude higher than other vaccines. There have been more VAERS reports of hospitalizations in one year of the Covid vaccine than in 30 years of the flu vaccine. There have been several vaccine-induced deaths (no one will provide an exact number, but I've seen multiple news articles) and the rate of induced myocarditis is 67 per million.
I'm not saying the vaccine is bad, I'm merely saying there is an actual, tangible risk to the vaccine. In the face of that actual, tangible risk, one must balance the risk of Covid. For an average person, sure, Covid is far more risky than the vaccine. But that risk differential drops the younger you get, the fewer comorbidities you have, and whether or not you have already contracted the virus and attained natural immunity. For some portion the population, Covid is more risky than the vaccine (or at least is in the same general ballpark). Statistically, that portion of the population likely includes those under 20 without comorbidities, and those under 50 who have already recovered from Covid. There is no justification to require them to take the vaccine.
From the VAERS website:
Disclaimer:
VAERS accepts reports of adverse events and reactions that occur following vaccination. Healthcare providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the public can submit reports to the system. While very important in monitoring vaccine safety, VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness. The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. In large part, reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases. This creates specific limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind.
From the studies of vaccine vs placebo side effects, CDC:
Moderna :
Serious adverse events were defined as any untoward medical occurrence that resulted in death, was life-threatening, required inpatient hospitalization or prolongation of existing hospitalization, or resulted in persistent disability or incapacity. The proportions of participants who reported at least one serious adverse event were 1% in the vaccine group and 1% in the placebo group. The most common serious adverse events occurring at higher rates in the vaccine group than the placebo group were myocardial infarction *(5 cases in vaccine group vs. 3 cases in placebo group), cholecystitis (3 vs. 0), and nephrolithiasis (3 vs. 0). Three serious adverse events were considered by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as possibly related to vaccine: the one report of intractable nausea/vomiting and two reports of facial swelling in persons who had a previous history of cosmetic filler injections.
(* all numbers out of ~11,000 test subjects)
Pfizer:
The proportions of participants who reported at least 1 serious adverse event were 0.6% in the vaccine group and 0.5% in the placebo group. The most common serious adverse events in the vaccine group which were numerically higher than in the placebo group were appendicitis **(7 in vaccine vs 2 in placebo), acute myocardial infarction (3 vs 0), and cerebrovascular accident (3 vs 1). Cardiovascular serious adverse events were balanced between vaccine and placebo groups.
(** all numbers out of ~3,000 test subjects)
Affected individuals commonly showed a history of severe allergic effects.
Study on
hospitalization of children with COVID:
What is already known about this topic?
COVID-19 can cause severe illness in children and adolescents.
What is added by this report?
Weekly COVID-19–associated hospitalization rates among children and adolescents rose nearly five-fold during late June–mid-August 2021, coinciding with increased circulation of the highly transmissible SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant. The proportions of hospitalized children and adolescents with severe disease were similar before and during the period of Delta predominance. Hospitalization rates were 10 times higher among unvaccinated than among fully vaccinated adolescents.
Excerpt:
During March 1, 2020–August 14, 2021, COVID-NET identified 49.7 cumulative COVID-19–associated hospitalizations per 100,000 children and adolescents (Figure 1); rates were highest among children aged 0–4 years (69.2) and adolescents aged 12–17 years (63.7) and lowest among children aged 5–11 years (24.0). Weekly hospitalization rates were at their lowest in 2021 during the weeks ending June 12–July 3 (0.3 per 100,000 children and adolescents each week) (Figure 2). During a subsequent 6-week period after the Delta variant became predominant, rates rose each week to 1.4 during the week ending August 14, 2021, which was 4.7 times the rate during the week ending June 26, 2021 and approached the peak hospitalization rate of 1.5 observed during the week ending January 9, 2021.§§§§ Weekly rates increased among all age groups; the sharpest increase occurred among children aged 0–4 years, for whom the rate during the week ending August 14, 2021 (1.9) was nearly 10 times that during the week ending June 26, 2021 (0.2). During June 20–July 31, 2021, among 68 adolescents hospitalized with COVID-19 whose vaccination status had been ascertained, 59 were unvaccinated, five were partially vaccinated, and four were fully vaccinated; the hospitalization rate among unvaccinated adolescents was 0.8 per 100,000 person-weeks (95% CI = 0.6–0.9), compared with 0.1 (95% CI = 0.0–0.1) in fully vaccinated adolescents (rate ratio = 10.1; 95% CI = 3.7–27.9).
Among 3,116 hospitalized children and adolescents with COVID-19 during March 1, 2020–June 19, 2021, for whom complete clinical data were available,¶¶¶¶ 827 (26.5%) were admitted to an ICU, 190 (6.1%) required IMV, and 21 (0.7%) died. Among 164 hospitalized children and adolescents with COVID-19 during June 20–July 31, 2021, for whom complete clinical data were available,***** 38 (23.2%) were admitted to an ICU, 16 (9.8%) required IMV, and three (1.8%) died.
