ONE
Vaccine policies for children in other countries are far more conservative than in the USA. The United Kingdom only allows a third dose for 12 to 15-year-olds who have serious medical conditions that put them at high risk for severe covid illness. Finland has a similar policy for 12 to 17-year-olds. In Ireland no one under 16 can receive a booster. Denmark, Sweden, Japan, and Spain are among the countries that have approved boosters for adults only. Numerous countries, including Sweden, don’t recommend any Covid vaccines for healthy children at all.
The World Health Organization’s Chief Scientist said: “There is no evidence that healthy children or healthy adolescents need boosters. No evidence at all.”
The CDC and FDA have ignored all of this.
The CDC and FDA each had panels of independent experts who met and voted on vaccine policy. In September 2021, both committees voted against proposals for widespread boosters, instead approving the third dose only for limited, high-risk groups.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the agency’s director, overruled her committee. The vaccines have side effects.
Myocarditis is the major side effect of the vaccines in young people. Kaiser Permanente released a study, which found a 1 in 2,650 chance of myocarditis per second and third doses for males between the ages of 12 to 17. (This rate was higher than what the CDC had been telling the public: a rate of roughly 1 in 30,000 for 12 to 17-year-old boys and girls. By combining the results for both sexes—girls are at far lower risk—the CDC's findings obscured the real risk to boys.)
The CDC also presented data that stated if you are a vaccinated boy between the ages of 12 and 17, the likelihood of being hospitalized with Covid is 0.3 out of 100,000. But if you are a boy in that same group and you get a booster, your likelihood of getting myocarditis is 1 out of 2,650.
In other words, if you are a young male who is vaccinated you have two choices. Option A: don’t get a booster and run a 0.3 in 100,000 risk of ending up in the hospital with Covid. Option B: get the booster and run a 1 out of 2,650 risks of getting myocarditis.
TAKE HOME
The risk/reward calculation is crazy. The United States is outside of the western scientific consensus. Healthy children, particularly boys, should not take the risk of getting a Covid Vaccine booster.
TWO
Before the pandemic, only 5 per cent of speech therapy patients were babies and toddlers. This number has soared to 20 per cent. Parents describe their children’s speech problems as “COVID delayed.” Face coverings are the primary cause of their children's speaking skills being seriously impaired. Babies as young as 8 months old start learning how to speak by reading lips, this is a challenging task if parents cover their mouths with masks to comply with mandates. The pandemic has caused a 364% increase in speech therapy referrals of babies and toddlers. A related study by researchers at Brown University found that mean IQ scores of young children born during the pandemic have tumbled by as much as 22 points. Verbal, motor and cognitive performance have all suffered as a result of the lockdowns. Two of the primary causes for this are face masks and children being developmentally delayed as a result of being kept away from other children. Children born over the past year of lockdowns have not seen elderly relatives and other extended family members. They have been unable to study the expressions behind the masks. This has significantly reduced verbal, motor and overall cognitive performance compared to children born before the pandemic.
TAKE HOME
There is a price to be paid for wearing masks around very young children whose learning has been impaired by masks and lockdowns.
THREE
Cases in the U.S. have dropped 28 percent over the past week, from 710,000 a week ago. Deaths, a metric that often lags a few weeks behind cases, are cresting, up 15 percent over the past week to 2,389 per day. They are still way below earlier pandemic mortality rates. States like Pennsylvania, that were struck hard by omicron early on, are now seeing cases dramatically decline - down more than 57 percent over the last week alone. There are currently 4,763 Pennsylvanians hospitalized with Covid. This is down 2,000 in a week. Only half are sick with Covid. For the other half, Covid is an incidental finding, while they need hospital care for something else. Denmark has been among the hardest hit nations in the world by Omicron. Cases in Denmark are rising, up to 45,000 per day, they are clearly cresting, and deaths have remained low for the Nordic country throughout the pandemic. Prime Minister Frederiksen announced that Covid was no longer a 'socially critical sickness.' Denmark ended all pandemic-related restrictions this morning.
TAKE HOME
Our hospitals are much less full of patients who are much less sick from Covid. The omicron wave is ending. The United States should join Sweden, England, and Denmark and end all Covid restrictions immediately.