Pediatrician explains how Pfizer’s vaccine was tested for safety and efficacy
theconversation.com
theconversation.com
* Cases are irrelevant, in particular because it is well known that VE against infection fades away after about 6 months.
* The article claims "there have been over 1.9 million COVID-19 cases in children ages 5 to 11, with nearly 100 deaths." for a rate of 50 deaths per million.
* The FDA application estimates (unscientifically!) to prevent 1 in a million deaths, see table 14 on page 34. https://www.fda.gov/media/153447/download
Overall, according to Pfizer's estimates, the vaccine may save 2% of the already minuscule number of kids with a fatal covid risk. The study ran for a whole of 6 months on a population of 2000 kids, obviously all long term consequences have been thoroughly accounted for. Time to rollout the vaccines for tens of million of kids!
From 2020 to October 27th 2021, there were 60,066 deaths in the age group 0-17. 558 of those deaths are related to COVID-19. That's 0.93% (or: 99.1% of deaths happened due to other causes) [1].
The leading cause of deaths in this age group are accidents [2]. A lot of these accidents seem to be preventable [3].
> She pointed out that children are continuing to be hospitalized and to die or otherwise suffer adverse long-term effects from a largely vaccine-preventable disease.
No severe COVID-19 cases were reported in children 5 to <12 years of age as of the data cutoff date (08 October 2021). No cases of MIS-C were reported as of the data cutoff date [4].
> Cases in children rapidly increased during the delta variant surge, which coincided with the opening of in-person school across much of the country. Children now account for a quarter of new weekly cases.
Are cases in children increasing because in-person school leads to more infections or because it leads to more tests? Or both? Do children account for a quarter of new weekly cases because more infections occur or because in-person school leads to more testing & a substantial amount of adults are vaccinated (therefore don't need to be tested)? Or both?
> While severe disease and hospitalization from COVID-19 are far more rare in children than in adults, intensive care admission and the need for invasive ventilation do occur in children.
They do occur. Just as they did occur during the flu seasons (17/18, 18/19, 19/20), often at a higher rate [5, slide 10]. In children 5-11, there were 66 COVID-19 associated deaths 10/3/20-19/2/2021. In 2019, 66 committed suicide. 84 died of influenza and pneumonia [5, slide 16].
> The pandemic has also harmed children’s social, emotional and mental well-being and delayed their education progress.
The pandemic or the pandemic measures? Or both?
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COVID-19 associated deaths/hospitalizations/long-term effects in children exist. Regarding their relevance, I hope parents will have the right to choose their actions without being put under pressure.
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[1] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid_weekly/index.htm
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/child-health.htm
[3] https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/first-aid-and-safety/safe...
[4] Page 67: https://www.fda.gov/media/153409/download