Why should children be worried by COVID-19?

There is no justification for recommending current vaccines for children and a real possibility of net harm.

An open letter to the BBC has been sent in response to a potentially wildly misleading BBC Newsround episode claiming the vaccine to be 100% safe, The Medical Alliance spell out their deep concerns in no uncertain terms. They state, "In the current situation, which is fraught with uncertainty and fear, the public is looking to professionals for balanced advice. To present such a simplified and biased message is, in our opinion, deeply irresponsible. When it is targeted specifically at a vulnerable group of children, it is unforgiveable".

Open Letter to Professor Devi Sridhar re BBC Newsround Episode (7 June 2021) on Children's Vaccines

The UK Medical Freedom Alliance have sent a letter of complaint to Prof Sridhar in response to the statements she made on BBC Newsround, which is shown in most UK schools, which included several false or misleading claims. For example, that the COVID-19 vaccines are 100% safe, that children should have the vaccine to protect their parents, and that the benefits to children outweigh any risks.

Update - Why should children be worried by COVID-19?

There is no reason why they should be. However, according to the NNTV estimates - they should be worried about the jab.

Calculating actual risk - Number Needed to Vaccinate (NNTV)

The Number Needed to Treat (NNT) in order to prevent a single case, hospitalisation, ICU admission, or death, is a standard way to measure the effectiveness of any drug. It’s an important tool because it enables policymakers to evaluate tradeoffs between a new drug, a different existing drug, or doing nothing. In vaccine research the equivalent term is Number Needed to Vaccinate.

The FDA failed to provide an NNTV, so others have checked the data in order to do the calculation. In his Toby Rogers describes how he has calculated the number of children needed to be vaccinated in order to save one COVID death. Somewhat worryingly he points out that for every one child saved by the shot, another 117 would be killed by the shot.

Toby Rogers says, "If the FDA or CDC want to calculate a different NNTV (and explain how they arrived at that number) I’m all ears. But we all know that the FDA refused to calculate an NNTV not because they forgot, but because they knew the number was so high that it would destroy the case for mRNA vaccines in children this age. Your move CDC — your own Guidance document states that you must provide this number".

Comparing all-cause deaths

According to UK data as at 12th Nov 2021 out of 3,000 all-cause deaths in the under 18s, there have been six COVID deaths of healthy children since the pandemic started. As reported on by The Daily Telegraph following research published by Nature, "The same year saw more than 1,100 heart deaths among children, along with almost 1,200 fatalities linked to neurological conditions and more than 450 deaths among under-18s with respiratory conditions". There is no justification for recommending current vaccines for children and a real possibility of net harm.

For summary of all-cause mortality data.

BBC posing irresponsible propaganda

To present such a simplified and biased message is, in our opinion, deeply irresponsible, amounts to propaganda, and negatively impacts on the process of giving fully informed consent. We have requested that Prof Sridhar immediately retracts the entire message and issues a clear public apology for misrepresenting the facts relating to the safety concerns of Covid-19 vaccines in children.

the public is looking to professionals for balanced advice

The fully referenced letter makes the following key points:

1. You state the benefit of the vaccine for children would be that they then “don’t need to worry about
Covid-19”. Children are already in a position where they do not have to worry about Covid-19, as
the risk to them is close to zero.

2. You state that another benefit would be that they then are likely to not infect their parents. Children
do not play a major role in transmission, and there is also no evidence from the regulatory trials
that the vaccines prevent transmission. This is clearly a statement intended to provoke an emotional
response of guilt followed by a sense of duty, and as such it is propaganda rather than factual advice.

3. You state that the main downside of getting the vaccine is that it is “another injection into your
arm”. This is a gross misrepresentation of the known and unknown risks of potential serious
adverse effects of the Covid-19 vaccines for children. We are sure you are aware that the CDC in the
US is calling an emergency meeting, specifically to discuss the hundreds of cases of myocarditis that have occurred in young people after the vaccine (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
9672233/The-Latest-WHO-warns-delta-variant-hold-Europe.html).

They say, "Life-threatening effects and deaths have been reported in young adults and children in the US and Israel, which you do not refer to at all".

A previous open letter to the MHRA from the Medical Alliance implored, "the MHRA to immediately reverse the decision to authorize the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children and abide by the Hippocratic oath to “First do no Harm”.

According to a response published by the BMJ - Myocarditis followed by COVID-19 vaccines: A cause for concern or a reversible minor effect?

NB Update: 9th July 2020 the BBC have published an article with a complete change of tune - Covid: Children's extremely low risk confirmed by study. The article concludes quoting Dr Elizabeth Whittaker, from the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health and Imperial College London as saying, "It was encouraging they were seeing very few seriously unwell children in hospital. Although this data covers up to February 2021, this hasn't changed recently with the Delta variant. We hope this data will be reassuring for children and young people and their families." 

will be reassuring for children..

The article follows publication of new medical research entitled; Risk factors for intensive care admission and death amongst children and young people admitted to hospital with COVID-19 and PIMS-TS in England during the first pandemic year. The paper's conclusion is children and young people (CYP) "were at very low risk of severe disease and death from COVID-19".

Considering children for COVID 

"COVID mRNA vaccines have recently been considered for use in adolescents and young adults by various regulatory authorities, therefore, a comprehensive safety review is imperative to reassure that the risks associated with genetic vaccines in the young population do not outweigh the desired benefits".

Genetic vaccines are new

Vaccines are one of the great discoveries in medicine that has improved life expectancy dramatically. Nevertheless, genetic vaccines are new, and their long-term safety evaluation is important in identifying the potentially contraindicated populations to ensure public safety.

Propaganda aimed at children

Following previous reports concerning Newsround and Tik Tok, the propaganda aimed at children seems to be unrelenting and coming from all directions. The following new school play choice has just been brought to the attention of Total Health. One parent requests; "Please look what my daughter's school has chosen for their end of year play" - https://www.edgyproductions.com/shop/wow-what-a-year/

The song list 6 and 8 "A shot in the arm", in particular include such catchy lines as, "Oh jubilation and celebration, with just a little prick, we won't get sick". 

However, the plain fact is that these new genetic vaccines are not yet thoroughly tested. There are already major concerns with regard to their safety, and their long-term evaluation is important in identifying the potentially contraindicated populations - such as children - to ensure public safety. Furthermore, this all has to be placed in context of the fact that children are at minuscule risk from COVID-19 and there is no evidence that they are responsible for transmission. As The UK Medical Alliance state, "The potential benefit to an individual child of receiving a Covid-19 vaccine is statistically zero". 

So, why is there so much enthusiasm to get children to just roll up their sleeves?

The potential benefit to an individual child of receiving a Covid-19 vaccine is statistically zero