00:00:00.080COVID vaccines are now available for little kids, so let the fear-mongering begin.
00:00:05.220I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:12.160Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today.
00:00:14.100Thank you for your ongoing support of The Candice Malcolm Show as well as of True North, TNC.news.
00:00:19.400It is so important in this country that we have independent media, that we have groups like True North telling the other side of the story.
00:00:26.020And today I'm going to focus in on one of the reasons why it is so important that we have independent media and we have the other side of the story being told.
00:00:33.440Because increasingly, what we see from the legacy media is not news.
00:00:37.780It's not reporting in the traditional sense of reporting the news.
00:00:41.300People think when it comes to news, you can kind of vaguely split it into two different sections.
00:00:45.940You have fact-based news, so just reporting, and then you have opinion-based news, so opinion columns, analysis pieces, opinion shows.
00:00:55.580And that it's sort of a black and white distinction.
00:01:00.520We see that the legacy media, particularly the media outlets that are funded by the government, the ones that take money from the federal government, not just the CBC.
00:01:09.140The CBC is, of course, the biggest outlet that takes money from the federal government.
00:01:12.580But we see that the Trudeau government has spread those funds across particularly newspapers.
00:01:19.520Newspapers are now also funded in part or subsidized by the Trudeau government.
00:01:23.600And what we see from these legacy news outlets, these publicly funded news outlets, is that the reporting looks less and less like straight journalism, like straight reporting, unbiased, fact-based.
00:01:34.800And what it looks like now is more like an advocacy campaign to achieve the government's objective.
00:01:40.900And I'm going to demonstrate that today with this topic of little kids and vaccines.
00:01:45.600I'm going to show you the way that this issue has been portrayed by the media and juxtapose that with the facts, with the pure facts that we have on little kids when it comes to COVID.
00:01:55.980And then from there, you can make up your own mind.
00:01:57.640You can make up your mind for yourself, whether you think it is a good idea for little kids to get vaccinated.
00:02:01.900You'll have all of the reasons for as well as the reasons against and compare that to someone who just watches legacy media, just consumes the news through the legacy outlets.
00:02:10.860And how, by contrast, they're not well-equipped to make the decision because they're only hearing one side of the story.
00:02:16.680And I think when it comes to the health of little kids, of little kids who can't really make the decision for themselves, they have to rely on their parents to make these decisions for them.
00:02:24.260It's just so important that you have all the facts, that you're armed with the facts so that you can make a good decision.
00:02:30.240So do little kids need the COVID vaccine?
00:02:32.780So last Friday, we finally got the announcement, much anticipated announcement, that little kids, kids aged 5 to 11, would now be eligible for the vaccine.
00:02:40.980So Canada announced the approval of the Pfizer vaccine for kids aged 5 to 11 on Friday, November 19th.
00:02:47.100And so this week, the first doses were being administered to little kids across the country.
00:03:20.340And what you see is voice after voice after voice advocating for the vaccine.
00:03:25.520So it starts with a parent saying, finally, I can't wait to vaccinate my kid.
00:03:29.040We hear the overlay of the reporter's voice talking about how the little kids are the most likely to be infected.
00:03:35.060And also lead to the end of the lockdowns and the pandemics and the restrictions.
00:03:38.020Something that we've heard many, many times before.
00:03:40.520And yet, here we are still living in a COVID world with restrictions and lockdowns.
00:03:46.200Then we hear from a volunteer activist whose job it is to go from door to door to try to convince parents to get their children vaccinated.
00:03:54.260So we hear right off the bat three pro-vaccine voices.
00:03:57.140And then followed by a series of public health officials, government officials, basically just telling you to get vaccinated.
00:04:27.260The timing of the approval is critical.
00:04:29.680Kids under 12 are testing positive more than any other age group.
00:04:33.920Vaccination reduces their chances of getting sick and infecting others more susceptible to severe illness, a risk that's kept families apart.
00:04:43.000I don't have any family in Canada and my children haven't seen any of their cousins.
00:04:49.020Health Canada confirms in a clinical trial the Pfizer vaccine was over 90% effective at preventing COVID-19 in children between 5 and 11.
00:04:59.200The department has determined that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the potential risks.
00:05:03.860Kids could begin getting their shots in just a few days.
00:05:06.980Canada will begin receiving doses Sunday with all the 2.9 million doses received by the end of next week.
00:05:14.780That's enough doses to offer a first shot to all eligible children in this country.
00:05:21.720Now comes the delicate job of persuading parents who are still unsure.
00:05:26.960In one of Toronto's least vaccinated neighbourhoods, public health volunteers encounter questions and hesitation.
00:05:33.640They're concerned about if it's kind of painful or if they get fever or something or how safe it is.
00:05:42.100They're also reminding parents this could help children return to normal.
00:05:46.660We're going to have less outbreaks, less school closures or classroom closures and that will give a bit of stability for kids because a lot of kids in the past two years haven't had it.
00:05:56.880The National Advisory Committee on Immunization recommends extending the interval between the two pediatric doses to eight weeks from Pfizer's recommended three weeks, which means children wouldn't be fully vaccinated until the new year.
00:06:13.760I mean, it's basically an infomercial for the vaccine.
00:06:16.420And so if you were just a casual viewer of the CBC, not a skeptical minded person, just someone who says, OK, I turn on the CBC, I trust them to get my news, you would be under the impression that it was a unanimous decision, that every health expert out there agreed that children need to be vaccinated.
00:06:34.980COVID is very dangerous for little kids and therefore it is your obligation to your child as well as to society, the greater society, to get your children vaccinated.
00:06:43.500But wait a minute, I want to pause and just say that that is not the case.
00:06:48.280It is not true that every health expert out there unanimously agrees that little kids must get vaccinated.
00:06:54.560It is still an issue of contention and it is a moral decision.
00:06:57.760It is up to each individual parent to determine what is best for their own child.
00:07:02.400And doing some great reporting on this topic is my colleague Anthony Fury and he has an excellent Twitter thread that I'm basically going to read in its entirety here talking about how, no, it isn't unanimous.
00:07:13.000So here is Anthony Fury saying this, Canadian parents would be well advised to read what the NACI release on kids vaccines actually says.
00:07:21.420NACI, by the way, is the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
00:07:24.880You saw at the end of the CBC report, they're the ones who recommended a further gap between the two vaccine doses in contrast to what Pfizer recommends.
00:07:33.040So this is the Canadian Advisory Board.
00:07:35.180And so Anthony has gotten his information straight from them.
00:07:38.200So one more time, he says, Canadian parents would be well advised to read what the NACI release on kids vaccines actually says.
00:07:43.460It is far less of a ring endorsement than many would have you believe.
00:07:47.860So again, this comes from the Canadian authority.
00:07:51.300All those people who say trust the science, trust the experts.
00:07:54.660This is the science, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
00:07:57.500And so here they say, it is essential that children age 5 to 11 and their parents are supported and respected in their decision regarded COVID-19 vaccines for their children, whatever decision they make, and are not stigmatized for accepting or not accepting the vaccine offer.
00:08:38.460And you heard the narrator say, the reporter say, that the purpose of vaccinating little kids is twofold, one, to protect them, and two, to protect the people who they may infect.
00:08:48.440So little kids get COVID a lot and they could pass it on to a sick relative and it could prevent them from seeing their relatives.
00:08:55.580We saw that parent complaining about how she hadn't been able to leave the country, presumably, and go visit her relatives.
00:09:00.440So she would not just vaccinate her child to protect her child, she would vaccinate her child to protect people around her and to enable her to do the things that she wants to do.
00:09:08.880So in some ways, it's sort of like sacrificing a little kid to benefit others.
00:09:13.540And here, the NACI says it is not justified to vaccinate children for that reason.
00:09:19.480Interesting stuff, stuff that you are not seeing reported by the legacy media.
00:09:23.600It says, the overall safety and effectiveness data are limited for children.
00:09:27.300Given the short-term uncertainties surrounding pediatric vaccination at this time, children and their parents or guardians should be supported and respected in their decision.
00:09:36.460So we're learning there's still short-term uncertainties regarding this vaccine and that we shouldn't be vaccinating little kids to benefit others.
00:09:43.260Interesting stuff, stuff that you don't hear or read about in the legacy media.
00:09:47.140Anthony goes on to say, I don't think most Canadians are aware that there were similar cautionary notes
00:09:52.860surrounded by the FDA committee and even Pfizer itself as they break down here.
00:09:57.580Any links to a column Europe for the Sun saying, more nuance is needed around the kids' vaccination decision.
00:10:03.180He goes on to say, anyway, give the NACI document a read yourself.
00:10:07.100And they don't explicitly say it because unlike the Ontario Science Table, which is a group of doctors that advise Doug Ford, Ontario Premier Doug Ford,
00:10:14.280and as we know, they're very, very political, so political that one guy left the table to go run for the Liberals.
00:10:19.700Regardless, he makes a point that unlike the Ontario Science Table, NACI is far too professional to blur science with policy advocacy.
00:10:28.300So these guys are just showing science.
00:10:30.320They're not saying one thing or another with regards to what they recommend and what they advocate with regards to policy.
00:10:35.620But they clearly, they clearly don't support vaccine mandates or passports for 5 to 11 year olds.
00:10:40.980So, wow. So here we have a group of scientists, a group of experts saying that there are short-term uncertainties when it comes to this vaccination,
00:10:49.200saying that the overall safety and effectiveness data are limited for children, so we don't actually know,
00:10:54.800and saying that either way, it's up to the parents and neither should be stigmatized.
00:16:07.040And again, when you hear this one in five get admitted, you think that the child might be at risk, one in five kids.
00:16:12.840But the reality is that the number of kids that go to the hospital with COVID is like one in thousands or one in tens of thousands.
00:16:19.840So, again, the data isn't being presented in a factual way.
00:16:23.580And why don't we pause? Let's pause right now and go through the actual numbers with kids in COVID.
00:16:28.580Because I think it's so important, again, for parents to be armed with the facts.
00:16:32.460So the following figures all come from Health Canada's comprehensive database on COVID-19.
00:16:37.000So dating back to the very beginning of the pandemic, early 2020, there have been a total of 1.68 million cases of COVID in Canada and about 29,000 deaths.
00:16:46.940That's in all age groups, in all of Canada, in basically the last two years, almost two years now.
00:17:00.900There have been approximately 350,000 cases in this age group, making up 21% of all cases.
00:17:07.220So kids, teenagers, people under the age of 20 are the most likely to get COVID.
00:17:12.240However, they're also the least likely to be hospitalized.
00:17:15.640So despite having the highest numbers of COVID cases, Canadians aged 0 to 19 experienced lowest hospitalization rate, only 2% of hospitalizations.
00:17:24.720So of all the people who've gone to the hospital, only 2% were from that age group, from that 0 to 20 age group.
00:17:38.82018% of all hospitalizations have been in that age group.
00:17:41.360And look at my grandmother's age bracket, over 80, 25% of all COVID hospitalizations have been people in their 80s.
00:17:48.000So to go back to kids, of the 350,000 cases we've had in Canada, for those people under the age of 20, only 1,800 have been hospitalized.
00:17:56.860Only 1,800 out of all those 350,000 cases.
00:18:00.140And as my colleague Anthony Fury reported, that only 40% of those 1,800 cases, so only about less than, what, 800 cases, have been because of COVID.
00:18:10.200The other ones have been someone, they break their arm, they have a bloody nose, something happens, they go to the hospital, and then they're tested, and it turns out that they have COVID.
00:18:17.520So it's not like they're hospitalized because of COVID.
00:18:19.720They're hospitalized, and then they just happen to have asymptomatic COVID.
00:18:23.320And so, again, the numbers are so important because they show you the context.
00:18:28.080So since the start of the pandemic, so we're almost at two years now, the two-year death rate for children under the age of 20.
00:18:34.620So teenagers and kids in all of Canada, in the past two years, there have only been 17 deaths, 17, 17 deaths.
00:18:42.800That makes up 0.1% of all COVID deaths in Canada.
00:18:45.480That means that the COVID case fatality rate, the number of people who die per case in Canada for anyone under the age of 20, is 0.002%.