Dr. Cody Meissner, pediatric infectious diseases chief at Tufts Children’s Hospital in Boston, said he would want to be “very convinced” that a coronavirus vaccine is safe for children before giving it the green light. He said during an Oct. 22 FDA hearing that “the pattern of disease is quite different in children,” and lumping them with adults would be a cause for “discomfort.”
Another health expert expressed concern that there was insufficient evidence to support vaccinating children against COVID-19. Dr. Luigi Notarangelo, head of the Laboratory of Clinical Immunology and Microbiology at the National Institutes of Health, said safety studies “long enough in duration to include the potential appearance of [multi-inflammatory syndrome] and actually be large enough to take those into consideration” were needed before proceeding with any juvenile vaccinations.
The warnings against juvenile vaccination came as the first group of American teenagers received a dose of the potential COVID-19 shot. Pfizer recently received approval to expand trials for its coronavirus vaccine to children as young as 12, emphasizing collecting safety and immune system response data. The drug maker's coronavirus jab, developed in partnership with BioNTech, was the only one with trials on juvenile participants as of writing.
Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine trials on children align with the approval of its COVID-19 shot, which President Donald Trump himself insinuated in September. Dr. Matt Hepburn, head of vaccine development at Operation Warp Speed, said: "As these trials roll out, our intention is to do additional trials to understand [the vaccine's effect on children." However, Hepburn did not say how many children would need to receive the COVID-19 jab to confirm its safety and effectiveness.
Whether it’s against the flu or against COVID-19, there is no safe vaccine for children
Pediatric infectious disease specialist Dr. Robert Frenck said COVID-19 vaccine trials for children easily show a clearer potential benefit compared to that of adults. These trials set the standard for an effective vaccine: Flu vaccinations are recommended for American children, yet more have died from COVID-19 than from flu every year. (Related: BOMBSHELL: Covid-19 infection rate may be 440% higher among children who received FLU SHOTS… while health “authorities” madly push more shots for the coming flu season.)
Frenck remarked that despite the milder effects of COVID-19 in children compared to adults, “there's still a significant morbidity and mortality. So that's why we think it's important to immunize kids.” He added that vaccinating children may also stop them from bringing the coronavirus to their homes and schools, given that it was difficult to make teenagers follow social distancing rules.
However, some countries, such as the United Kingdom, have mentioned that their children will not be receiving any coronavirus jabs.
Kate Bingham, who heads the UK Government Vaccine Task Force, said that the coronavirus vaccine would only be available for people over the age of 50 – ruling out an inoculation of people aged 18 below. “People keep talking about [how it was] ‘time to vaccinate the whole population,’ but that is misguided. There’s going to be no vaccination of people under 18. It’s an adult only vaccine, for people over 50, focusing on health workers, care home workers and the vulnerable.”
“If you vaccinate a young, healthy person, by vaccinating them you can cause them some freak harm, that’s a risk-benefit analysis that’s very hard to do,” Bingham added.
If potential vaccines against COVID-19 have caused serious harm to adult trial participants, then juvenile participants of these vaccine trials face a greater risk.
Head over to VaccineInjuryNews.com to learn more about the risks children face when they get the coronavirus shots.
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