zlacker

>>themgt+(OP)
The arguments they make regarding children's vaccines don't make much sense to me. The end target for the pediatric vaccine trials was immunobridging, which has widely been used for other common childhood vaccines. Are they arguing against those as well? If so, that goes against a widely accepted and validated strategy to bridge adult vaccines down to pediatric age groups. Efficacy is a very complicated thing to measure as variants change. The symptomatic disease efficacy seen for the pediatric trials compare well vs. Omicron to what we've seen for adults, so it's all consistent and makes sense. Also, would they argue against the annual flu shots? We don't even run efficacy trials for those every year for different strain compositions.

Also, a bit of perspective: we vaccinate children for many illnesses that would result in comparatively "small" numbers of pediatric deaths (lower than Covid even!). The reason is that even rare pediatric deaths, if preventable, are terrible given the life-years lost. And there HAVE been FAR too many pediatric Covid deaths by our modern standards for pediatric infectious diseases. If Covid only affected kids, the absolute numbers of deaths would be a very worrisome thing. Second, the possibility of long-term complications from even non-fatal illnesses. For pediatric COVID, MIS-C and potential super antigen links to the recent spread of pediatric hepatitis are more than sufficient to meet that bar.

Finally - there was no safety signal seen in the 5-12 year old pediatric vaccines that have been given out to millions for ~year already, and no signal in the under 5 trials as well. The myocarditis risk primarily seems in teenage and older groups and linked to puberty/adolescent hormones.

There may be contrarian voices in the FDA and CDC as there will be in any large organization. But to believe their voices over the consensus requires a heavy dose of motivated reasoning and not engaging with some basic facts about the goals of pediatric vaccines and the ways vaccine trials work. There's a reason every pediatrician parent I know was first in line to get their kids vaccinated.

>>strang+nW
> there HAVE been FAR too many pediatric Covid deaths

Let's see your numbers of <6 years and <8 etc.

> If Covid only affected kids

In all age groups, it affected children the least.

'In total, 540,305 people were tested for SARS-COV-2 and 129,704 (24.0%) were positive. In children aged <16 years, 35,200 tests were performed and 1408 (4.0%) were positive for SARS-CoV-2, compared to 19.1%–34.9% adults.' https://adc.bmj.com/content/105/12/1180

>>landem+U61
I'm not too sure about the "your" part, but it looks like the CDC says 453 for 0-4y.

https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Provisional-COVID-19-Deaths-Focus-...

>>n8henr+h91
Died WITH COVID, not OF COVID. Let's be clear about what they are counting.

More kids have died in the same period from drowning in America.

>>imperi+cb1
Nope, this isn’t true. If a kid comes to a hospital due to an accident and tests Covid positive and dies, that would not be counted. It is ultimately the judgment of the physician (as is the case for illnesses in general since a judgment is often needed to tie the proximate cause of death - say respiratory failure - to and underlying illness.

https://www.aamc.org/news-insights/how-are-covid-19-deaths-c...

>>strang+ar1
Dr. Deborah Birx in April 2020: "If Someone Dies With COVID-19 We Are Counting That As A COVID-19 Death" https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/04/08/dr_birx_u...!

A few months ago, the CDC quietly cut the covid death toll by 72k: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/24/cdc-coding-err...

People who died for any reason within weeks of a positive covid test result were being counted as covid deaths, even gunshot victim: https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/grand-county-covid-dea...

The loosey-goosey way covid deaths have been counted in the USA, inflating the death toll, seems to be an area of curiously selective collective amnesia.