I am vaccinated and am happy I am vaccinated. I encouraged everyone I know to get vaccinated. I would say the same for children if — and it’s apparently an unrealistic if — herd immunity were likely.
“Listen to the science.” For months if not longer the science said we all need to get vaccinated, since it’s the only way to defeat the virus. The science said that except for a few people with specialized medical conditions we should and will all get vaccinated.
Now the science says something very different: Don’t expect herd immunity. Too many people reject vaccination to make it possible.
For months: herd immunity, yes.
Now: herd immunity, no.
If herd immunity were all but guaranteed, I would favor vaccines for children. They would be last segment to guarantee the defeat of this virus for humanity, or at least for this country.
But now that herd immunity is not guaranteed — not to mention the variations of the virus that pop up — I have second thoughts about vaccines for children.
With respect to my own grandchildren, I will respect whatever my children decide for their children. But if it were up to me, I would not advise my grandchildren to get vaccinated.
First of all, those remaining unvaccinated will not undermine herd immunity. That prospect is gone anyway.
Second, although Pfizer has now applied with the FDA for a full authorization, the current vaccines are authorized as an emergency measure. People forget that. If so, why did I myself get vaccinated? It was the best bet. Everything in medicine is a risk-benefit analysis. The potential benefits of vaccination — staying safe now — seemed to far outweigh the risks of possible, long-term, presently unknown dangers.
If so, why should it be any different for grandchildren? In a word: fertility.
But the science says that the COVID vaccines pose no threat to fertility.
That, I find to be a very unscientific statement. No one, scientist or not, can tell us anything about long-term effects of a medicine before the long-term has happened. The long-term effects of COVID vaccinations are impossible to know unless scientists assume the mantle of prophecy. I have queried many doctors about this perspective; they all agree. Long-term effects of COVID-19 vaccines cannot be known at this time.
A group of 93 Israeli physicians wrote to Israel’s Health Ministry:
“We believe that even a handful of children should not be endangered through mass vaccination against a disease that is not dangerous to them. Furthermore, it cannot be ruled out that the vaccine will have long-term effects that have not yet been discovered, including on growth, the reproductive system or fertility.
“Do not rush to vaccinate children as long as the full picture is not clear. . . . Coronavirus does not endanger children, and the first rule in medicine is ‘first do no harm.’
“The full picture is expected to be obtained in many months, and possibly years. Warnings about severe or even life-threatening side effects are added months and years after drug approval, due to the fact that severe but rare toxins emerge, naturally, only over time.”
Signers on the letter included heads of departments at hospitals and practitioners who saw masses of COVID-19 patients.
Other doctors feel otherwise, and wrote as much to Israel’s Health Ministry. They say that children, albeit a very small number, have suffered from COVID and it would be foolish not to protect the others, especially since those who do get sick can suffer long-term effects.
Signers include the Israel Pediatric Assn. and Israeli Society for Pediatric Infectious Diseases.
I ask: Is the percentage of children who, unvaccinated, might get COVID any different from the percentage of children who come down with various other childhood maladies, against which they are also not vaccinated?
My judgment is that the first set of doctors, who oppose vaccinating children, have the better analysis of the risk-benefit ratio, for Israel too has not achieved herd immunity, high as Israel’s vaccination rate is.
If herd immunity were guaranteed, then the benefit to be derived from the defeat of the virus via herd immunity, including the vaccination of children, would outweigh the risk of non-vaccination of children. But with herd immunity off the table, why risk the fertility question and other potential ill effects?
After all, the risk to children from COVID is so much less than the risk to adults, and the risk to children from COVID is so much less than the risk from measles. In the absence of the prospect of herd immunity, the push to vaccinate children against COVIDlooks more like a power move than a scientific move, and thus undermines the respect for science that is essential for public health.
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