Using #Science to reason with vaccine-hesitant 5-11-year-olds

by philg

I’m not a regular Facebook user anymore, but an MIT friend shared a screen shot of his interaction with a desk job physician who went back into scrubs to do some COVID-19 vaccine injections on 5-11-year-olds (requiring the skills of a veterinary technician, a dog breeder, and/or, according to a medical school professor friend, “a janitor”). This is in a rich white part of the U.S.

A discussion ensued:

  • Equestrian mom (profile w kid and horse pictures, but no husband): Thank you for your service!
  • New York mom: Can you pin down some of the ridiculous anti vaxx adults and stab them?
  • Various: #Grateful #ThankYou #You’veGotThis
  • Lady whose profile is packed with cats and “Love is Love” rainbow frames: My cousin’s kids screamed “like a slasher movie” he reported. Good luck!
  • Grey-haired lady with “Let’s Get Vaccinated/We Can Do This” Facebook portrait frame: Thank you, thank you thank you!
  • A mom: Brave man!
  • Male Karen: Just got my booster today at a drive thru. Easy peasey
  • Doc Friend (one who sees patients daily): Godspeed
  • The volunteer doc/original poster: 80% of the kids were easy. 15% were tough. 5% were seemingly impossible and put up a significant fight. The county would do well to have a private room or area to deal with those kids, rather than holding up everyone and creating a spectacle for those waiting.
  • MIT graduate (my friend): I would just reason with the kids and say if they don’t get the vaccine, they have a 1 in 20 million chance of dying from Covid.

(Is 1 in 20 million number correct? From the BBC (UK data are much better than U.S. data due to superior competence with electronic medical records over there):

Researchers estimate that 25 deaths in a population of some 12 million children in England gives a broad, overall mortality rate of 2 per million children.

Around 15 had life-limiting or underlying conditions, including 13 living with complex neuro-disabilities

Though the overall risks were still low, children and young people who died were more likely to be over the age of 10 and of Black and Asian ethnicity.

Six had no underlying conditions recorded in the last five years – though researchers caution some illnesses may have been missed

So 1 in 20 million might be a reasonable lower-bound estimate for a typical rich white 8-year-old.)

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11 thoughts on “Using #Science to reason with vaccine-hesitant 5-11-year-olds”

  1. A November 13 Facebook post (114 Likes/Loves) from a mom of 5-11-year-olds, over a picture of two masked children:

    Sending gratitude to all the scientists and health professionals who made this day possible. A special thanks to the city of Newton MA and the Holtzman Medical Group for coordinating the vaccine center at Newton North High School❣️
    #COVID19Vaccines #keepourkidssafe

    and a selection of her (all female-named) friends’ comments:

    👏
    Awesome!! Way to go!
    Hooray!
    It’s a wonderful relief to know they are being protected.

    (No thanks to Donald Trump for pre-purchasing the vaccines and forcing the FDA to speed up its review process?)

    • @Philg: > (No thanks to Donald Trump for pre-purchasing the vaccines and forcing the FDA to speed up its review process?)

      I should say not! I would dare you to do it and show them this link…

      https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/12/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-design.html

      …but as George S. Patton once said:

      “Do everything you ask of those you command.”

      I wouldn’t deign to command, ask or dare you to do such an unthinkable thing, or remind them that as late as October 2020, National Public Radio was talking almost every day about their vaccine skepticism because Yellow Man had *rushed* the vaccines through Operation Warp Speed to win the election and therefore they might be *dangerous* or *ineffective*.

  2. Johns Hopkins team studied every US death of children with c19. They found 0 (yes zero) deaths among otherwise healthy children. Every death had other severe comorbidities (such as leukemia):

    https://archive.is/PY0mZ

  4. > went back into scrubs to do some COVID-19 vaccine injections on 5-11-year-olds (requiring the skills of a veterinary technician, a dog breeder, and/or, according to a medical school professor friend, “a janitor”).

    When giving a vax intended for intramuscular injection, its critical to first aspirate the needle to prevent inadvertent intravenous injections. What could go wrong? “Intravenous injection of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine can induce acute myopericarditis in mouse model” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34406358/

    Dr. John Campbell explains how to safely aspirate a needle to prevent inadvertent intravenous injections: youtube video

    • GB: Americans did not complain when we deprived children of millions of life-years on a statistical basis via school closure (people with fewer years of education have lower incomes and live shorter lives, so the loss of 12-18 months of education is guaranteed to results in premature deaths). These were apparently considered necessary casualties in our Total War against SARS-CoV-2 so why won’t any children who die from vaccine side-effects be similarly perceived?

    • Years cut off by lack of schooling come at the end of life after the parents are gone, all of the remaining years cut off in one shot post V is sitting in your lap like a dead kid. Equestrian mom should notice, eventually. A few years back there was a horse vaccine disaster that looked like a mini version of what we are living, overblown risk of disease + a bad V. Lots of dead horses, you’d think she might have a clue.

  6. One can aim for 118% vaccination rate, like Gibraltar:

    https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/covid-19-delta-outbreak-gibraltar-cancels-official-christmas-celebrations-amid-exponential-rise-in-cases/DK4P3SYBWE3YJWISVCMILPVREI/

    Somehow the editor has let through inappropriate and harmful content in this article:

    “Despite ongoing reassurance from world governments, the widespread vaccination of populations has unfortunately failed to ease rising case numbers for some densely populated nations.”

    (To be fair, I don’t think everyone is eligible for the vaccine in Gibraltar, but it still illustrates the false hope.)

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