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Q&A – The Facts About Child Covid Vaccinations & Florida’s Guidance
Each day I feature a listener question sent by one of these methods.
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Today’s Entries:
1) @brianmuddradio Brian where can I get that myocarditis vs Covid-19 deaths in kids stats?
2) Brian, I heard your reporting on Ladapo’s rec. How many children ended up being vaxxed?
Bottom Line: I’ve heard from several listeners wanting to weigh in and asking questions pertaining to Florida’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph Ladapo’s, recommendation against children being vaccinated against COVID-19. These are good questions and I’ll address both of them, but first let’s establish the facts. While Dr. Ladapo’s recommendation has made international news, the specifics of the recommendation haven’t commonly been cited. Here’s the official statement issued through the Florida Department of Health:
The Florida Department of Health (Department) is the first state in the nation to issue guidance stating that healthy children from ages 5 to 17 may not benefit from receiving the currently available COVID-19 vaccine. The Department recommends that children with underlying conditions are the best candidates for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Right, so at Dr. Ladapo’s direction the DOH’s recommendation is that healthy children between the ages of 5 to 17 not be vaccinated against COVID-19, while the recommendation for those with underlying health conditions remains unchanged from the CDC’s current guidance. With that established let’s get to it with addressing the questions. I’ll start with the question regarding myocarditis and child Covid-attributed deaths.
The CDC maintains a regularly updated spreadsheet online - documenting all deaths attributed to COVID-19, pneumonia and influenza. The speadsheet breaks down all data by age as well. As of the current CDC information available, a total of 864 children between the ages of 5-17 have died of COVID-19 in the United States. That means children between the ages of 5-17 have accounted for 0.0009% of Covid-attributed deaths in the United States since the onset of the pandemic. Additionally, and to Dr. Ladapo’s point, there’s zero available evidence even one of those 864 children were healthy prior to contracting COVID-19. Also, as I’ve previously pointed out – far more children have died of pneumonia than Covid since the onset of the pandemic. According to the CDC’s data – during the same window of time 1,126 children between the ages of 5-17 have died of pneumonia. This proves pneumonia is a meaningfully greater risk than Covid to children – yet, interestingly there’s been no hyped pneumonia concerns by the CDC or news media. That’s because statistically – the risk of both to children are nil.
While recent studies exist showing the approved Covid vaccines can still reduce the risk of serious symptoms for those who contract COVID-19, there are no available studies showing the vaccines retain any efficacy at prevention against the current mutations of the virus. The data empirically support the Florida Department of Health recommendation that healthy children not be vaccinated, while those with risk factors should prioritize vaccination. As it pertains to myocarditis...
As of February, the CDC and FDA had confirmed 1,328 cases of myocarditis directly attributed to Covid vaccinations in children. An additional 933 cases are currently being investigated to determine whether a vaccine was responsible. Again, facts that are buried by both federal health authorities and news reporters alike. As for the second question – how many children have been vaccinated against COVID-19...
According to Friday’s summary from the Florida Department of Health:
- 22% of children between the ages of 5-11
- 60% of children between the ages of 12-19
As always there are two sides to stories and one side to facts. The facts clearly support the decision by Dr. Joseph Ladapo and the specific guidance provided by the Florida Department of Health.