From our government-funded media, “CDC Says Kids As Young As 12 Should Get The Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine” (NPR):
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine be given to adolescents ages 12-15.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky issued a statement saying, “The CDC now recommends the vaccine be used among this population, and providers may begin vaccinating them right away.”
An independent federal advisory committee on Wednesday had voted — 14 in favor with one recusal — to recommend that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine be quickly approved for those as young as 12.
Here in Massachusetts, prior to deaths-by-age data being withdrawn from public view, nobody under 18 had ever been killed by COVID-19 (see Maskachusetts: When people aren’t scared enough, change the Covid-19 dashboard). Due to the minimal impact of COVID-19 on the young and the non-FDA-approved status of the vaccines, the physicians whom I’ve talked to say that it would be against the Hippocratic Oath to inject vaccines into young adults, much less children. See Is it ethical for a physician to vaccinate a healthy 20-year-old against COVID-19? and We love our children so much we will give them an investigational vaccine
Even if we believe that a 12-year-old will somehow benefit from getting an “investigational” pharmaceutical, do we think that he/she/ze/they will benefit as much as a 65-year-old in a vaccine-poor country? If we believe our lawn signs (“Black Lives Matter”) and our statements (#StopAsianHate and Brown Lives Matter), why wouldn’t we ship Pfizer doses to India or Colombia to be injected into old (vulnerable) people we refer to as “brown” rather than into white American 12-year-olds?
The map from Our World in Data (“Daily new confirmed COVID-19 cases per million people”):
Colombia, Brazil, Paraguay, India, Costa Rica, et al. all have higher case rates than the U.S. and presumably plenty of people we would regard as worthy vaccine charity cases. Here’s the map of vaccination rate (percent of people who’ve had at least one dose):
India is at only 10 percent. Why does a white American 12-year-old get a vaccine before a 60-year-old in India? At the rate we’re going, is it fair to predict that Mindy the Crippler (our golden retriever) will be eligible for a vaccine before a 50-year-old in India can get one?
Separately, comparing the above two charts shows high vaccination rates in Chile, Uruguay, and Canada, for example, and also fairly high coronaplague “cases”. Considering deaths, the statistics for which are less dependent on testing zealotry, Chile and Uruguay have both a high vaccination rate and a high death rate:
If they’ve vaccinated the old/vulnerable, how is it that these countries are experiencing a significant wave of coronadeath? Are these old/vulnerable folks who got infected months ago and have been in the hospital for a long period of time?
To close on a cheerful note, the plague in India does seem to be subsiding in accordance with Farr’s laws. From the NYT:
> Why does a white American 12-year-old get a vaccine before a 60-year-old in India?
Ask Randi Weingarten! I suspect the approval has less to do with anything scientifically “sound” and much more to do with teacher’s union demands that everything be made completely safe before they will teach. It’s not good enough that teachers are vaccinated – their pupils must be vaccinated too. I saw this coming a while back, but almost thought it was too bold and didn’t discuss it here. But dollars to donuts, it was a precondition in order for TUs to get their workers back into classrooms. There’s no surprise the CDC is doing the work to make that happen.
Maybe people in India should just send their funeral bills to Dr. Weingarten (she’s a Juris Doctor.)
You mean teacher’s demands to be paid to not teach?
Strange that the highest educated country in the world, India, had the highest infection rate, while the least educated country in the world, US, is shunning vaccines because of alien conspiracies. Population density & credit had a bigger impact than brain power. 20 years ago, India & China were supposed to become the new superpowers by now, so the epidemic was quite a reversal in fortunes.
China is becoming superpower, it is building several largest rocket ships and several dozens rocket corvettes per year along with fleet carriers and soon will have largest navy in the world which will be capable to rule part of South Pacific that US fought hard to liberate. Same with Chinese air force.
India was not even on US diplomatic pay attention list twenty five years ago, now it is a major world player which is also growing rapidly.
Vaccine acceptance doesn’t correlate with intelligence or common sense.
It’s interesting that Canada has such high vaccination rate. Friend in Vancouver reports that he can’t get vaccinated since he is at the end of the priority queue. Compare it to Seattle, where everyone and their dog can get vaccinated basically on the same day, if they want to.
In Canada due to epic incompetence on the part of our federal government, we are getting less vaccine than anywhere else in the developed world. They are giving out first shots as quickly as possible (which is not all that quick), but nobody really knows when we can get the second shot.
Countries like Chile and Uruguay are using Chinese vaccines which apparently don’t work very well.