COVID vaccines are now available for little kids, so let the fearmongering begin! Candice explains why it is so important that we have independent media telling the other side of the story, and how the legacy media are not telling the truth.
00:00:00.160COVID vaccines are now available for little kids, so let the fear-mongering begin.
00:00:05.260I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.
00:00:12.220Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning in today.
00:00:14.140Thank you for your ongoing support of The Candice Malcolm Show, as well as of TrueNorth, TNC.news.
00:00:19.440It is so important in this country that we have independent media, that we have groups like TrueNorth telling the other side of the story.
00:00:26.060And 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.
00:00:33.480Because increasingly, what we see from the legacy media is not news.
00:00:37.820It's not reporting in the traditional sense of reporting the news.
00:00:41.340People think when it comes to news, you can kind of vaguely split it into two different sections.
00:00:45.980You have fact-based news, so just reporting, and then you have opinion-based news, so opinion columns, analysis pieces, opinion shows.
00:00:55.620And that it's sort of a black and white distinction.
00:01:00.560We 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.
00:01:09.160The CBC is, of course, the biggest outlet that takes money from the federal government.
00:01:12.600But we see that the Trudeau government has spread those funds across particularly newspapers.
00:01:19.560Newspapers are now also funded in part or subsidized by the Trudeau government.
00:01:23.640And 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.
00:01:34.780And what it looks like now is more like an advocacy campaign to achieve the government's objective.
00:01:40.940And I'm going to demonstrate that today with this topic of little kids and vaccines.
00:01:45.660I'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.
00:01:56.020And then from there, you can make up your own mind.
00:01:57.680You can make up your mind for yourself, whether you think it is a good idea for little kids to get vaccinated.
00:02:01.940You'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.
00:02:10.900And how, by contrast, they're not well-equipped to make the decision because they're only hearing one side of the story.
00:02:16.720And 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.
00:02:24.300It'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.
00:02:30.280So do little kids need the COVID vaccine?
00:02:32.820So 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.
00:02:41.020So Canada announced the approval of the Pfizer vaccine for kids aged 5 to 11 on Friday, November 19th.
00:02:47.140And so this week, the first doses were being administered to little kids across the country.
00:03:20.380And what you see is voice after voice after voice advocating for the vaccine.
00:03:25.560So it starts with a parent saying, finally, I can't wait to vaccinate my kid.
00:03:29.100We hear the overlay of the reporter's voice talking about how the little kids are the most likely to be infected.
00:03:34.800And also lead to the end of the lockdowns and the pandemics and the restrictions, something 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.
00:03:46.260Then 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.
00:03:54.040So we hear right off the bat, three pro-vaccine voices, and then followed by a series of public health officials, government officials, basically just telling you to get vaccinated.
00:04:14.180They're among the millions of young Canadians who, as of today, are eligible to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
00:04:20.640Thank goodness. They have taken long enough to approve it. I can't wait.
00:04:27.220The timing of the approval is critical. Kids under 12 are testing positive more than any other age group.
00:04:33.960Vaccination reduces their chances of getting sick and infecting others more susceptible to severe illness, a risk that's kept families apart.
00:04:43.020I don't have any family in Canada, and my children haven't seen any of their cousins. They haven't seen my grandmother.
00:04:49.060Health Canada confirms in a clinical trial, the Pfizer vaccine was over 90% effective at preventing COVID-19 in children between 5 and 11.
00:04:59.240The department has determined that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the potential risks.
00:05:03.900Kids could begin getting their shots in just a few days.
00:05:06.880Canada will begin receiving doses Sunday with all the 2.9 million doses received by the end of next week.
00:05:15.420That's enough doses to offer a first shot to all eligible children in this country.
00:05:21.940Now comes the delicate job of persuading parents who are still unsure.
00:05:26.420In one of Toronto's least vaccinated neighbourhoods, public health volunteers encounter questions and hesitation.
00:05:33.680They're concerned about if it's kind of painful or if they get fever or something or how safe it is.
00:05:42.160They're also reminding parents this could help children return to normal.
00:05:46.440We'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.
00:05:56.920The 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.
00:06:13.800I mean, it's basically an infomercial for the vaccine.
00:06:16.440And 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.
00:06:35.020COVID 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.
00:06:43.540But wait a minute, I want to pause and just say that that is not the case.
00:06:48.340It is not true that every health expert out there unanimously agrees that little kids must get vaccinated.
00:06:54.600It is still an issue of contention, and it is a moral decision.
00:06:57.820It is up to each individual parent to determine what is best for their own child.
00:07:02.440And 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.
00:07:13.040So here is Anthony Fury saying this, Canadian parents would be well advised to read what the NACI release on kids' vaccines actually says.
00:07:21.500NACI, by the way, is the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
00:07:24.920You 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.
00:07:32.880So this is the Canadian Advisory Board, and so Anthony has gotten his information straight from them.
00:07:38.240So one more time, he says, Canadian parents would be well advised to read what the NACI release on kids' vaccines actually says.
00:07:43.500It is far less of a ringing endorsement than many would have you believe.
00:07:47.900So again, this comes from the Canadian authority.
00:07:51.340All those people who say trust the science, trust the experts, these are the experts.
00:07:54.700This is the science, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization.
00:07:57.540And 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.
00:14:41.400They've said it enough and it's just not true.
00:14:43.480So, OK, so we're hearing from a doctor.
00:15:13.480There's a doctor here who says that there is benefit for kids and they're using really vague language here.
00:15:18.320So it says that some do end up with severe versions of the illness and some end up in intensive care.
00:15:25.120Here it says a study suggested one in five children who is admitted to the hospital with COVID end up in intensive care.
00:15:30.140So, again, that's designed to make you feel afraid, to make you feel nervous, to make you think that kids are at a great risk.
00:15:35.960But it, of course, ignores so much context, so much greater information.
00:15:39.920For instance, we know that the hospitalization rate for children is very low.
00:15:43.760And even of the kids who get admitted to a hospital with COVID, the overwhelming majority of those cases are not individuals who are admitted because of COVID.
00:15:52.260They're admitted for other reasons and then they're tested.
00:15:54.520And it turns out they had COVID, but they didn't even know about it.
00:15:56.980And so they're saying of the kids who get admitted to the hospital, those are the ones that end up in acute care.
00:16:02.280Well, of course, because they're taken to hospital because of the disease.
00:16:25.320Let's pause right now and go through the actual numbers with kids in COVID because I think it's so important, again, for parents to be armed with the facts.
00:16:32.580So the following figures all come from Health Canada's comprehensive database on COVID-19.
00:16:36.720So 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.
00:16:47.120That's in all age groups in all of Canada in basically the last two years, almost two years now.
00:17:00.600There have been approximately 350,000 cases in this age group, making up 21% of all cases.
00:17:07.160So kids, teenagers, people under the age of 20 are the most likely to get COVID.
00:17:12.280However, they're also the least likely to be hospitalized.
00:17:16.180So despite having the highest numbers of COVID cases, Canadians aged 0 to 19 experienced lowest hospitalization rate, only 2% of hospitalization.
00:17:24.740So of all the people who've gone to the hospital, only 2% were from that age group, from that 0 to 20 age group.
00:17:38.86018% of all hospitalizations have been in that age group.
00:17:41.640And look at my grandmother's age bracket, over 80.
00:17:44.14025% of all COVID hospitalizations have been people in their 80s.
00:17:47.940So 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.
00:17:56.900Only 1,800 out of all those 350,000 cases.
00:18:00.180And 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.
00:18:10.220The 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.
00:18:17.480So it's not like they're hospitalized because of COVID, they're hospitalized, and then they just happen to have asymptomatic COVID.
00:18:23.860And so again, the numbers are so important because they show you the context.
00:18:27.940So 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.
00:18:34.760So teenagers and kids in all of Canada, in the past two years, there have only been 17 deaths.
00:21:22.640I believe in vaccines for other diseases.
00:21:25.020It just, when it comes to COVID, I haven't seen the evidence that would really prove to me that I need to go out and get my little kids vaccinated.
00:21:32.460But again, it's up to each and every Canadian, and we should respect the decision that everyone makes one way or another.
00:21:38.060I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is the Candace Malcolm Show.
00:21:39.880Candace Malcolm, and this is the Candace Malcolm Show.