You are right to be concerned. Myself and several of my friends have not vaccinated our children with anything in two years. We question all medical care. Doctors should have spoken up and most did not and now, you have lost our trust.
This article is ridiculous. First, vaccine deniers were around before COVID and every serious person knew to dismiss them as nutjobs. Now all of a sudden, the people whose job it is to give their best medical advice should worry about whether their advice is in agreement with what parents "want" for their kids? Many parents don't provide nutritious meals for their children - should guidance change to say that vegetables aren't important because many parents don't do it?
Second, in your post you talk about the effectiveness of other vaccines "when vaccine rates are high" and then compare that to the effectiveness of a vaccine that was politicized by the dumbest president in American history before it was even released. COVID vaccination rates never got to target levels and those morons who didn't get vaccinated went out of their way to commingle in a way designed to maximize spread. When you have a large group of ignorant people going out of their way to counteract efforts to protect the populace and then you fault the vaccine and the scientists who developed it for not sufficiently protecting the populace, you're misattributing blame.
This article is aggressively anti-science and intentionally misrepresenting the issue. Even for Common Sense, which goes out of its way to coddle right-wing thinking in order to keep up subscriber numbers, this is pathetic.
The media has warped too many liberal minds on the coasts when it comes to COVID vaccines and children. My friends with kids know for a fact that I stay in top physical health and still can play team sports despite having battled 2 autoimmune diseases that led to a liver transplant at 39. I’m close my physicians at the top hospital in NY and have spoken with docs at the Mayo Clinic and top So Cal institutions. It’s amazing what my physicians and nurses will say behind close doors about their skepticism for young children and COVID vaccines and yet some of my overly paranoid friends look at me like I’m passing them information from Alex Jones. These vaccines will become mandated in certain coastal cities and none of these parents will push back, and some will welcome it.
Wouldn't it be easier to educate black parents about the need for a vaccination ? this seems like yet another instance of lowering the bar to accommodate a group. Also, there is a risk that children can get encephalitis from Covid. I know of 3 instances in one elementary school. The kids are still suffering from it.
To bastadize a famous Justice John Roberts quote: "the way to stop worrying about COVID... is to stop worrying about COVID."
As soon as we stop adjusting our lives in response to what the science now says is a minor disease for the vast majority of people, we will discover that it is a minor disease for the vast majority of people.
Obsessing about whether you are sick as actually a mental illness. And at this point, any reasonably physically healthy person wearing a mask in public or worrying about others not doing so is mentally ill.
I urge the independent thinkers who read this substack to read this well researched AND cited article by another substack independent writer (don't let the title fool you).
The CDC has already got the media off to a running start on panicking the public over the RSV virus, the latest "pandemic" for which it has little if any scientific data or effective treatment.
"The harm to kids from substandard education—after nearly two years of disruption—far exceeds any gains from compliance. And that harm will disproportionately hurt poor, black kids. The same is true for mandates that prevent kids from participating in school sports. Being sedentary is far more damaging for children’s health than not getting this shot."
Couldn't we argue that the opposite is true ? Ie, as a parent, shouldn't you consider that the harm to your kids caused by non compliance (loss of education, sedentary lifestyle,...) outweighs the potential damage linked to TAKING the shot ?
So parents who are worried about giving their kids a novel vaccine using a antibody resistance method with no long-term studies and that will (at best) prevent the severity of a disease (that already has a minute rate of serious infections in children) and will perform this feat for (at best) 3-6 months... are the problem here?
Well, yes, I suppose you could argue that. But you would be wrong.
There are already too many parents opting out of vaccines over spurious claims about mercury and autism. Let's not create another excuse to do so. And let's not blame parents who are engaged enough to be worried about their kids safety for the educational disaster that COVID created and which the CDC's guidance will only extend.
Exactly a win-win on the one hand. lose-lose other hand. But if the win-win involves compliance whereas the lose-lose requires being a stupid prick these Insane Clown cult followers will take the lose-lose every time.
My trust of the medical establishment and doctors in general has plummeted massively in the past few years, due to a combination of unrelated issues other than the fact that they are political--the lack of compelling evidence for the efficacy of covid vaccines compared to how much not taking them has been demonized, the presentation of “racism” as a public health issue, and the promotion of biological sex as something a person can change via pronoun manipulation or cosmetic procedures.
Rationality has been demonstrated by seemingly a majority of doctors to be less a priority to them than political allegiance.
Before the pandemic, I knew that the CDC existed and had a vague idea of its mission and importance. I would have assumed it was an important institution, guided by sober and expert analysis.
Now that we have seen the CDC in action during the single most important event in the CDC's history--its Super Bowl essentially--it is fair to say that the CDC is corrupt, utterly incompetent, and a net negative in American society.
You make some good points in this column. IMHO if the CDC were to require an additional vaccination, it should be for Polio before even considering Covid vaccines. Polio was a terrible and fairly common disease when I was young. We almost completely eradicated it with Salk’s vaccine. Because many parents refused to have their children vaccinated following the inaccurate Lancet article we are now seeing many Polio cases.
Since our current Covid vaccines don’t stop Covid mutations or eliminate the disease, requiring them for all school children is a poor idea. Most healthy children will acquire more immunities from getting out and playing with others.
Here is the data from the CDC as of 10/24/22. Total number of deaths age 0-17 are 1,823. The numbers are cumulative from, I believe, March 1, 2020. This is out of a cohort of approx 75M. I don't want to dismiss those kids who died- their deaths are a tragedy.
It would be helpful if someone has analyzed how many of those who died had significant other health problems. When I have presented this data in the NYT comments, I get either I don't care about children's deaths or I am not including Long Covid as an issue (sigh).
Kevin Bass PhD has a twitter feed with graphs for a variety of infectious diseases.
For some, like polio, rates of infection for children drop precipitously when vaccination becomes widespread.
For others, like measles, it had already dropped before vaccination began.
https://x.com/kevinnbass/status/1864767576540098637/photo/1
You are right to be concerned. Myself and several of my friends have not vaccinated our children with anything in two years. We question all medical care. Doctors should have spoken up and most did not and now, you have lost our trust.
This article is ridiculous. First, vaccine deniers were around before COVID and every serious person knew to dismiss them as nutjobs. Now all of a sudden, the people whose job it is to give their best medical advice should worry about whether their advice is in agreement with what parents "want" for their kids? Many parents don't provide nutritious meals for their children - should guidance change to say that vegetables aren't important because many parents don't do it?
Second, in your post you talk about the effectiveness of other vaccines "when vaccine rates are high" and then compare that to the effectiveness of a vaccine that was politicized by the dumbest president in American history before it was even released. COVID vaccination rates never got to target levels and those morons who didn't get vaccinated went out of their way to commingle in a way designed to maximize spread. When you have a large group of ignorant people going out of their way to counteract efforts to protect the populace and then you fault the vaccine and the scientists who developed it for not sufficiently protecting the populace, you're misattributing blame.
This article is aggressively anti-science and intentionally misrepresenting the issue. Even for Common Sense, which goes out of its way to coddle right-wing thinking in order to keep up subscriber numbers, this is pathetic.
The media has warped too many liberal minds on the coasts when it comes to COVID vaccines and children. My friends with kids know for a fact that I stay in top physical health and still can play team sports despite having battled 2 autoimmune diseases that led to a liver transplant at 39. I’m close my physicians at the top hospital in NY and have spoken with docs at the Mayo Clinic and top So Cal institutions. It’s amazing what my physicians and nurses will say behind close doors about their skepticism for young children and COVID vaccines and yet some of my overly paranoid friends look at me like I’m passing them information from Alex Jones. These vaccines will become mandated in certain coastal cities and none of these parents will push back, and some will welcome it.
Get vaccinated or don't. Who cares? Not like America is designed for collective responses to anything, really.
So...just leave it up to the individual. Get the "Herman Cain Award" - great! Don't get it - great, too!
Wouldn't it be easier to educate black parents about the need for a vaccination ? this seems like yet another instance of lowering the bar to accommodate a group. Also, there is a risk that children can get encephalitis from Covid. I know of 3 instances in one elementary school. The kids are still suffering from it.
To bastadize a famous Justice John Roberts quote: "the way to stop worrying about COVID... is to stop worrying about COVID."
As soon as we stop adjusting our lives in response to what the science now says is a minor disease for the vast majority of people, we will discover that it is a minor disease for the vast majority of people.
Obsessing about whether you are sick as actually a mental illness. And at this point, any reasonably physically healthy person wearing a mask in public or worrying about others not doing so is mentally ill.
I urge the independent thinkers who read this substack to read this well researched AND cited article by another substack independent writer (don't let the title fool you).
https://margaretannaalice.substack.com/p/50-reasons-to-give-your-child-the
"Covid vaccines do work to lower the risk of severe disease." In whom? When? How? Please cite.
The CDC has already got the media off to a running start on panicking the public over the RSV virus, the latest "pandemic" for which it has little if any scientific data or effective treatment.
"The harm to kids from substandard education—after nearly two years of disruption—far exceeds any gains from compliance. And that harm will disproportionately hurt poor, black kids. The same is true for mandates that prevent kids from participating in school sports. Being sedentary is far more damaging for children’s health than not getting this shot."
Couldn't we argue that the opposite is true ? Ie, as a parent, shouldn't you consider that the harm to your kids caused by non compliance (loss of education, sedentary lifestyle,...) outweighs the potential damage linked to TAKING the shot ?
You list harm from non-compliance to mandates as if they are equivalent to a natural occurrence. Government edicts are like an act of God?
So parents who are worried about giving their kids a novel vaccine using a antibody resistance method with no long-term studies and that will (at best) prevent the severity of a disease (that already has a minute rate of serious infections in children) and will perform this feat for (at best) 3-6 months... are the problem here?
Well, yes, I suppose you could argue that. But you would be wrong.
There are already too many parents opting out of vaccines over spurious claims about mercury and autism. Let's not create another excuse to do so. And let's not blame parents who are engaged enough to be worried about their kids safety for the educational disaster that COVID created and which the CDC's guidance will only extend.
I tend to agree with you, merely playing devil’s advocate.
At society level, there should not be a vaccine mandate. But at private level, knowing there’s one, the choice is reversed.
Exactly a win-win on the one hand. lose-lose other hand. But if the win-win involves compliance whereas the lose-lose requires being a stupid prick these Insane Clown cult followers will take the lose-lose every time.
My trust of the medical establishment and doctors in general has plummeted massively in the past few years, due to a combination of unrelated issues other than the fact that they are political--the lack of compelling evidence for the efficacy of covid vaccines compared to how much not taking them has been demonized, the presentation of “racism” as a public health issue, and the promotion of biological sex as something a person can change via pronoun manipulation or cosmetic procedures.
Rationality has been demonstrated by seemingly a majority of doctors to be less a priority to them than political allegiance.
This is the larger disaster of COVID, the squandering of a century of public health credibility.
God help us if we actually get a real pandemic (smallpox level for example) anytime in the next 2 generations.
Before the pandemic, I knew that the CDC existed and had a vague idea of its mission and importance. I would have assumed it was an important institution, guided by sober and expert analysis.
Now that we have seen the CDC in action during the single most important event in the CDC's history--its Super Bowl essentially--it is fair to say that the CDC is corrupt, utterly incompetent, and a net negative in American society.
You make some good points in this column. IMHO if the CDC were to require an additional vaccination, it should be for Polio before even considering Covid vaccines. Polio was a terrible and fairly common disease when I was young. We almost completely eradicated it with Salk’s vaccine. Because many parents refused to have their children vaccinated following the inaccurate Lancet article we are now seeing many Polio cases.
Since our current Covid vaccines don’t stop Covid mutations or eliminate the disease, requiring them for all school children is a poor idea. Most healthy children will acquire more immunities from getting out and playing with others.
SallyJones
Here is the data from the CDC as of 10/24/22. Total number of deaths age 0-17 are 1,823. The numbers are cumulative from, I believe, March 1, 2020. This is out of a cohort of approx 75M. I don't want to dismiss those kids who died- their deaths are a tragedy.
It would be helpful if someone has analyzed how many of those who died had significant other health problems. When I have presented this data in the NYT comments, I get either I don't care about children's deaths or I am not including Long Covid as an issue (sigh).
Deaths by age:
Age Group Count of deaths
0-4 Years 585
5-11 Years 438
12-15 Years 456
16-17 Years 344
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics
Hello - When people reply to my comments via email, they arrive encrypted and I don’t know how to open them.