Juno News - November 07, 2021Facts are needed in discussion about kids and COVID-19 vaccine
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Summary
In this episode, Dr. Kelly reviews the data on the effectiveness of COVID-19 in reducing myocarditis in kids, and what the manufacturer, Pfizer, actually has to say about the issue. She also talks about the implications for parents and pediatricians who want to know if all kids should get the drug.
Transcript
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I'm finding it very concerning how the public conversation around kids and COVID-19 vaccines
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has really gotten away from the basic facts of not just the data out there on COVID-19, but
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what actual regulatory bodies, what the pharmaceutical companies are even saying
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themselves. So now in the United States, they have just started, just a couple days ago,
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started vaccinating the five to 11 year old cohort. And there are some jurisdictions in the
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U.S. that are already talking about making it mandatory for five to 11 year olds, for the
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school system, for various activities. I know in Canada, there are people very excited about the
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issue and some people talking about whether or not they want to extend the vaccine passport to that.
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Now, previously I've written about, Candace Malcolm wrote about, we talked about the issue of what the
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actual data shows around kids and COVID-19. And a lot of pediatricians stepping forward to say,
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well, hold on, if there's any silver lining to all of this, all of this stuff that's happened in the
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past year and a half, it's that COVID-19 thankfully has proven to not be anywhere near as serious in
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kids as we first feared. That's what the president and CEO of Sick Kids Hospital said to me when I was
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speaking to him a number of months ago. And actually the data shows that COVID-19 is even less severe in
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kids than influenza is in kids. But leave all of that behind. Let's talk about Pfizer's submission data
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that they put forward to the FDA seeking approval for this drug for 5 to 11 year olds. What did the
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manufacturer of it actually have to say? And Pfizer actually, in their briefing documents,
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they say that the vaccine for kids should depend on incident rates in the neighborhoods. That incident
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rates will determine the usefulness and the need for all of this. So Pfizer themselves,
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they're not even flat out saying that all kids need to get this vaccine. And of course, Pfizer is the
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advocate of selling the drug and getting it out there. And they're the ones who are going to put
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it out in the most favorable light. Now they put out some risk benefit scenarios because there's a lot
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of concerns about myocarditis in youth. And a lot of people would like to just kind of ignore those
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concerns. But those concerns are very valid. Experts talking about them, governments issuing reports on
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them and Pfizer acknowledging the issue in their submission and actually looking at different
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scenarios. And one thing that's actually interesting is they present different cost benefit scenarios
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for the benefit of vaccinating 5 to 11 year olds. And in one of their slides, they actually have a
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scenario where in June 2021, based on the incidence rate of COVID among kids and the number of hospitalizations,
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they actually say that in June 2021, there would have been if I guess they were doing mass vaccination
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at that time, more kids hospitalizations for myocarditis related to the vaccine, then there
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would have been kids hospitalizations for COVID-19. Now they lay out five scenarios. And that's the only
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scenario that they themselves, the marketer of the drug, say that the vaccine side effects would be worse
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than the benefits of the vaccine. But it's very interesting that again, in the public conversation, I think
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there's a lot of people who don't even see that as being within the realm of possibility. And yet, the very
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manufacturer of the drug in their own submission to the FDA to the US, they lay out a very scenario where that
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indeed can happen. And then they go on to conclude that they feel in other scenarios, high transmission scenarios,
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that's not the case, and so on and so forth. But the very fact that they present that one scenario, I mean,
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that should be eye opening for those people who on Twitter and elsewhere are saying all kids must get
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it everywhere in all circumstances, when Pfizer itself is not saying that, and the people in the FDA
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who did eventually approve the drug, they themselves are not even saying that. So if I had to give one
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message at this moment, based on all the reading I've been doing and speaking with pediatricians,
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it's that I really hope there's people out there who acknowledge there's a lot of nuance to the issue
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right now. And it's nuance that I think parents and all people would be very wise to read about