Experts: CDC’s Summer-Camp Rules Are ‘Cruel,’ ‘Irrational’ - "Masks must be worn at all times, even outdoors, by everyone, including vaccinated adults and children as young as 2 years old. The exceptions are for eating and swimming. (The guidance helpfully notes that if a person is having trouble breathing or is unconscious, no mask need be worn.) Campers must remain three feet apart from each other at all times including, again, outdoors. Six feet of distance must be maintained during meals and between campers and staff. If you need to sneeze and you don’t have a tissue, do it into your mask. (Children presumably are expected to carry a cache of spares.) Campers and staff should be cohorted, and any interaction with a person outside the cohort must be conducted at a distance of six feet. Art supplies, toys, books, and games are not to be shared. The notion that children should wear masks outdoors all day in the heat of July, or that they can’t play any sport that involves physical contact, or put an arm around a friend strikes many experts in infectious diseases, pediatrics, epidemiology, and psychiatry as impractical, of dubious benefit, and punishing in its effects on children. It has been well documented that kids are at exceedingly low risk of serious illness from COVID-19... While the specific statistics differ from study to study, the evidence is unequivocal that outdoor transmission is rare... the guidance recommends staggering the use of shared playground equipment. Yet fomite transmission – that is, viral spread through surfaces – outdoors has proved to be almost non-existent. One laboratory study showed that SARS-CoV-2 was inactivated within minutes when in direct sunlight... Dr. Christakis said, “We’ve consistently deprioritized the essential needs of human childhood. Keeping kids out of school, enforcing social distance on them.” We have to learn to tolerate some level of risk, he said. It’s clear that children’s well-being is not the priority in these guidelines, he said, and “we have to try as best we can to give children their lives back.” Mark Gorelik, the pediatric immunologist, said, “Irrational recommendations will do no good, could in this case do harm, and really discredit federal agencies.”"
Dr. Eli David on Twitter - "Today Israeli government decided: 1. Third Covid shot will be available immediately for entire population aged 12+ 2. Covid passport ("green pass") will be revoked for those without third shot, i.e., vaccinated with 2 shots = unvaccinated Coming soon to your country 🐑"
Civil liberties watchdogs say stay-at-home order opens door to ‘return to carding’ - "The new police powers were immediately criticized by lawyers and anti-racism advocates as unconstitutional, arbitrary and likely to lead to further over-policing of racialized individuals, particularly young Black and Indigenous men... He added that it is unclear if or how police will retain the information they collect during such stops. “It is an invitation for the police to potentially return to carding the most marginalized members of our community and will breed distrust of the police within these communities”"
It's telling they didn't get upset over the general population being oppressed - only "minorities"
Toronto neighbourhoods with highest numbers of racialized people have lowest vaccination rates: research
Only white conservatives get demonised for being vaccine-hesitant, of course. Minorities being vaccine-hesitant is of course the fault of racism
Zinc supplements ‘may cut how long respiratory infections last’ - "Taking a zinc supplement may cut how long respiratory infections last, while also easing symptoms, a review of limited evidence suggests. The new study of 28 existing studies involving almost 5,500 people found that taking zinc by mouth or as a nasal spray could ward off infection and may make people feel better more quickly. Respiratory tract infections (RTIs) can affect the sinuses, throat, airways or lungs, but most get better without treatment."
It's only fake news till it's not
Lauren Boebert on Twitter - "When they introduced federal income tax, they said it was temporary. When they introduced the Patriot Act, they said it was temporary. Now they’re introducing vaccine passports and saying they’re temporary. Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program."
Should schoolchildren still have to self-isolate? - "More than a quarter of a million children are absent from school in the UK because of coronavirus, prompting calls for a different approach to testing and quarantining of pupils that puts children's needs first. With children at extremely low risk from the virus and more than three out of every five UK adults now fully vaccinated, is it time for a change in policy?... missing school will have a detrimental effect on children's mental and physical development, particularly those with learning disabilities or from poorer families. The most vulnerable have missed out on much-needed support and socialising, as well as their education, which has "set them back hugely", he says. "We are at a different stage in the epidemic now - there needs to be an alternative to isolating contacts of positive cases"... in England alone, 2.7% of primary and 4.2% of secondary schoolchildren are absent because of Covid... health officials say spread of the virus in schools has always been low and there is no evidence schools are causing outbreaks. Instead, they appear to be reflecting levels of the virus in their local communities."
Forcing children to self-isolate was ‘needless’ - "Forcing hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren to self-isolate because a classmate had Covid was unnecessary as daily testing would have been as effective, an official study suggests... There is growing unease about the number of people being asked to self-isolate, with shops running out of food, rubbish collections missed and businesses forced to close because of a lack of staff."
Woman denies VACCINATED grandmother's visit with grandchildren over COVID fear | The Post Millennial - "Pamela Zimmer from Brookfield, Wisconsin, had received both of her vaccinations, and called her daughter eager to finally see her grandchildren Hank, 6, and Lena, 3, who live in Silver Spring, Maryland with their mother. Zimmer hadn't seen them since October. Despite being fully vaccinated, and CDC rules allowing vaccinated people to travel freely, Zimmer's daughter Natalie said that wasn't the best idea. Why? Because the kids haven't been vaccinated, even though the CDC hasn't authorized any vaccines yet for use among children and children are not high vectors of the disease."
Foo Fighters ‘Vaccinated Only’ Concert Canceled After Band Member Gets COVID as Breakthrough Cases on the Rise
Looks like life can never go back to normal despite vaccines. So what's the point of vaccines?
Charles Lewis: Governments need to stop using COVID as an excuse to treat us like children - "We now find ourselves living in a world where personal freedom must be given based on the whims of politicians. We have decided that we can put our freedoms on hold because the state knows best. To object is to be labelled a right-wing extremist, an anti-masker or an anti-vaxxer. It’s a form of social bullying. In Toronto, where I live, we somehow became the most locked-down city in North America. Over the weekend, roughly 5,000 citizens demonstrated against the latest lockdown rules. It is a sign that many of us are sick of the government trying to run our lives... American teams have been safely allowing socially distanced, mask-wearing fans into their stadiums, but in Canada, this is seen as completely inconceivable. All this despite the fact that the chances of transmitting COVID outdoors in minuscule (less than 0.1 per cent, by one estimate)."
Political incentives.
EmilyJo on Twitter - "I’m a teacher with a few science degrees. All three of my kiddos will be vaccinated as soon as they are able."
EmilyJo on Twitter - "My fourteen year old got his first COVID vaccine today. We are so thankful 💉"
EmilyJo on Twitter - "1/ My son was one of the “unlucky” ones and he developed myocarditis after his second dose. He was monitored in the hospital for 3 days. I am not making light of it and I can’t pretend to know what pain he felt. However, I asked him if he is still happy to be vaccinated."
EmilyJo on Twitter - "Okay, I’m not an expert. As a parent, I don’t think that the risk of myocarditis and it’s severity is being adequately conveyed. I had no idea that “mild” meant 4 days in the hospital and cardiology visits for the indefinite future. Different issue, I guess."
EmilyJo on Twitter - "I have to pay for my son’s hospital bill and endless cardiology follow ups because he got post vaccine myocarditis. That’s not free."
EmilyJo on Twitter - "Twitter is brutal. From the beginning, I have advocated for vaccination as I believe it’s a way to control this pandemic. However, when I share that my son got myocarditis from his vaccine, I get blocked. I’m sorry my son’s AE doesn’t fit your agenda. 😓"
EmilyJo on Twitter - "🧵 1/ My son’s hospital bills are starting to roll in from his vaccine induced myocarditis. This is just the first of many and only one of his consults. I imagine we will owe thousands just dealing with the Acute phase of myocarditis"
EmilyJo on Twitter - "My son’s new shirt: Came for immunity and all I got was myocarditis and a mask 💉"
EmilyJo on Twitter - "I used to shame people for not getting vaccinated until my son was hospitalized with vaccine induced myocarditis. Life has a way of humbling you."
The liberal moral panic over vaccinated young children, who are at virtually no risk from covid, is not going to turn out well. Of course they'll find some way to blame other people (or, as we can see in this example, pretend that no problems exist)
Study: Number of Kids Hospitalized for COVID Is Overcounted - "pediatric hospitalizations for COVID-19 were overcounted by at least 40 percent, carrying potential implications for nationwide figures. Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, and Amy Beck, an associate professor of pediatrics, also at UCSF, wrote a commentary for Hospital Pediatrics that accompanied the two studies. They wrote, “Taken together, these studies underscore the importance of clearly distinguishing between children hospitalized with SARS-CoV-2 found on universal testing versus those hospitalized for COVID-19 disease.” The studies demonstrate, they said, that reported hospitalization rates “greatly overestimate the true burden of COVID-19 disease in children.” Gandhi told Intelligencer that while the studies were both conducted with data from California hospitals, “there is no reason to think these findings would be exclusive to California. This sort of retrospective chart review will likely reveal the same findings across the country.” The implications of the findings of these two studies are enormously important, as reports of pediatric hospitalizations have regularly made headlines over the past year, greatly affecting public perceptions about risks to children. Untold numbers of parents have kept children home from school or limited playdates and other activities out of fear their children would be infected and fall seriously ill. The hospitalization numbers for children were already extremely low relative to adults — at the pandemic’s peak this winter, it was roughly ten times lower than for 18-to-49-year-olds and 77 times lower than those age 65 and up. But cutting the pediatric numbers by nearly half is a striking difference, making the actual rates vanishingly small. Pediatric hospitalization figures for COVID-19 also influence policy on school openings and guidelines, camp recommendations, and other political decisions. Gandhi and Beck’s commentary noted, “Children have suffered tremendously due to policies that have kept schools and recreational facilities closed to them, and the burden has been greatest on children who are low-income and English-language learners.”... Stefan Baral, an infectious-diseases epidemiologist and physician at Johns Hopkins, wrote in the British Medical Journal about the risk-benefit calculus of vaccinating children against a disease that poses a “very low likelihood of severe outcomes” to them, which, he argued, means it does not meet the definition of an “emergency.” These studies weigh the scales even further toward that conclusion. The findings, Baral told Intelligencer, “reinforce the importance of going through a meaningful process to understand the risks to children.” Explaining why the official tallies were found to be so far off, Baral said the electronic databases that hospitals use are administrative in purpose, meant for billing, resource management, et cetera. “They were not designed to infer the prevalence and severity of an infectious virus.” We have a desire for instant, accurate data, he said, but validation takes time."
Covid hystericists will claim that this can't be extrapolated, so we cannot say that covid cases in children (much less in general) are being exaggerated. Either that or claim the studies are outdated and we must still panic
Not enough data on kids and COVID vaccines, Canadian expert cautions | Toronto Sun - "A Canadian vaccine expert is voicing his concerns about the current push to get children vaccinated against COVID-19, noting that there is currently not enough data to conclude that the benefits outweigh the risks in younger age cohorts. “When you get down to the low end of the spectrum, the cost-benefit analysis changes completely,” says Dr. Byram Bridle, an Associate Professor of Viral Immunology at the University of Guelph. “If the risk associated with the treatment is less than the risk associated with the disease, of course you apply the treatment.” But Bridle — whose lab research into vaccines has been supported by the Canadian government, among other bodies — says while this is definitely the case in elderly persons, when it comes to children there has been very little research that actually shows the risk of rare adverse effects from vaccines are less than the risk of the disease. Earlier in May, Health Canada authorized the use of the Pfizer vaccine for youth aged 12 to 15, based on a trial that involved 2,260 participants in that age group. However, the number of participants in Pfizer’s adult trial was more than 40,000... While many experts maintain that the current approach of approving COVID-19 vaccines before the traditional clinical study timeline has concluded makes sense for older persons and those at high-risk of contracting COVID-19, many pediatricians have noted that data shows the virus is less severe than influenza in kids. “That’s not how this is supposed to work, our kids should not be the guinea pigs,” Bridle says. “Stop using our children as shields in this battle that is an adult battle.” He’s not the only one voicing such concerns. “Rare adverse events really could prove to be the most durable public health legacy of [emergency authorization] for child COVID-19 vaccines,” warns a recent article on the subject written by a trio of experts, including Dr. Stefan Baral, an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who also does work in Canada and Dr. Vinay Prasad, an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at the University of California San Francisco... “A wide rollout of child COVID-19 vaccines should follow the standard regulatory process as for most children, unlike adults, COVID-19 vaccination is not addressing an emergency.” Dr. Neil Rau, an infectious diseases physician in the GTA, sees it in similar terms. “Once you get younger, because the disease risk is so low in the adolescent group, you do have to be vigilant about safety signals,” Rau explains."
The media is going to label them dangerous anti-vaxxers
Many Parents Won’t Vaccinate Their Kids. Here’s Why. - The Atlantic - "The announcement that the Pfizer vaccine appears to work in children ages 5 to 11 is welcome news for many families across the United States. Parents who expect their children’s classrooms to soon be full of vaccinated students shouldn’t be overly optimistic, though. Many moms and dads will wait to get their kids immunized, if they do at all—and that includes those who are vaccinated themselves... Parents tend to be skeptical of new vaccines. Whenever one is introduced, many of them are initially hesitant to adopt it. Take the varicella vaccine, for instance. Approved by the FDA in 1995, it protects against the virus that causes chickenpox, an extremely contagious, common, and unpleasant childhood infection. Even though the vaccine was highly effective and showed few side effects, uptake levels were initially low, with only 34 percent of eligible adolescents fully immunized by 2008. In my experience with my own patients, parents were concerned about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy, and weren’t convinced that chickenpox was a serious enough illness to warrant a vaccination. Immunization rates did improve over time. By 2018, about 90 percent of children had been vaccinated. But if history repeats itself, people hoping for parents’ speedy uptake of the COVID-19 vaccines may need to reset their expectations... We need to communicate the value of vaccination to parents before the vaccines are authorized for their younger kids, because immunizing children benefits not just them, but everyone around them too."
And just like that, liberals get a new monster under the bed to blame in their covid hysteria and why the world can never go back to normal again, and the ranks of the "anti-vaxxers" grow once again
Is it ethical to forcibly vaccinate kids to supposedly protect others?
What does the science say about whether children should get the Covid vaccine? - "As recommendations go, it was lukewarm, to say the least. On Monday, Prof Chris Whitty, the Chief Medical Officer for England, told the nation that “on balance” children aged 12 to 15 should be vaccinated, before providing only vague reasons to back up the decision. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has already ruled that the benefits are so marginal for schoolchildren that the jabs were not worth the risk. However, after 10 days of mulling over the wider advantages to education and mental health, the chief medical officers of the four nations decided to approve a rollout... A study by University College London (UCL) published in July found that just 25 under-18s died in the first 12 months of the pandemic, yet their worlds have been turned upside down by lockdowns, school closures and the bubble system which saw hundreds of thousands of children forced to isolate at home. At the end of July, a study by the University of Oxford found that 98.4 per cent of children who were sent home for 10 days under the bubble system never went on to develop Covid. On a longer-term level, studies have shown that education is one of the strongest determinants of health and longevity and there is strong evidence that school closures increase isolation, reduce physical activity, and cut off children from peers and social support. A study by UCL of 20 countries which had experienced school closures found that between 18 and 60 per cent of youngsters scored above risk thresholds for distress, particularly anxiety and depressive symptoms... There also appears to be little science backing up claims that the vaccinations will limit spread in schools"
