Vaccination of 5 to 11 year olds is a costly "feel good" venture unlikely to improve health outcomes
Health professionals promoting vaccines for young children ignore the data
This week, Canada’s Health agency approved the Pfizer vaccine for kids aged 5 to 11. Just who are they trying to protect and at what cost?
After 2 years of this pandemic, we have very good data on the disease. The demographics of the 1.7 million Canadians infected make it clear that young people get infected. In fact, those under 19 years of age comprise 21.2% of cases.
We also know that only 2.1% of COVID cases requiring hospitalization were persons under 19 years of age, a total of 1,951 cases or 1,951/370,877= .053%. Stated another way, 99.5% of young Canadians infected did not require hospitalization. They simply recovered and benefit from a natural immunity providing more protection than a vaccine.
Our data show that only 19 Canadians under 19 years have died from COVID, less than 1% of those hospitalized.
I understand each Pfizer COVID vaccine costs $19.50 per dose or $39 per “fully vaccinated” person. There are about 4 million Canadians under 11 years of age. Vaccination of all of the 5 to 11 year olds, the desired outcome being promoted by Health Canada and our Liberal government, will cost approximately $156 million. Assuming the 5 - 11 year old cohort comprises one third of those under 19, that $156 million is intended to prevent about 6 deaths every 2 years. In that age range, death from all causes each year is an estimated 325 people per year. The $156 million expenditure will not prevent some children from becoming infected by “breakthrough” infections nor will it prevent some children from succumbing to the disease once infected.
In an earlier article, I outlined the trade-off parents should make in deciding whether to have their younger children vaccinated at all. It is not clear that vaccination will improve health outcomes. COVID is a serious disease and we are all grateful for the development of effective vaccines. The safety of mRNA vaccines for adults is well established but their safety for young children is still unknown beyond the relatively small amount of testing that has led to their approval by Health Canada. Some recent research casts doubt on that safety.
Instead of promoting vaccines as the better choice, our government should do no more than make them available to parents who, in consultation with their family physicians, believe the risks of COVID are greater than those of the vaccines and ensure the hard data on the risks and benefits are widely and clearly distributed.
I am well past the age where I had young children but I do have 5 grandchildren with more expected. I will encourage their parents (my children) to approach this issue with caution and get advice from their family physicians on the best routes for their kids. The data so far indicate vaccination is a toss up between the certain risks of vaccination and the statistical risks of acquring COVID with an adverse outcome.
Our government is to be applauded for making the vaccines available for children and admonished for being willing to spend $156 million in a crusade for 100% vaccination of these youngsters for what seems to be little benefit. Those funds would be better targeted at much greater risks to our children like poverty, inadequate nutrition, and domestic violence, at least in my opinion.