Vaccinating under-20s? No health benefit whatsoever!
At a time when some are sticking to the idea of anti-covid vaccination for all, others are very seriously measuring its relevance against the number of “covid” deaths and hospitalisations. In a recent report, the American Academy of Pediatrics concludes that “at this time, it appears that severe illness due to covid-19 is uncommon among children”, despite an “extremely high” infection rate. Does vaccinating young people therefore still have any raison d’être?
The report published jointly by the Children Hospital Association and theAmerican Academy of Pediatrics (which brings together some 67,000 paediatricians) reveals that, as of 14 October 2021, some 6.2 million children had tested positive for covid since the beginning of the pandemic. These figures are based on counts carried out in the United States.
Extremely low risk of death from infection
In this study, children account for 16.4% of the total number of cases reported during this period, with an infection rate of 8.2% among the total child population.
Furthermore, on the basis of data collected from a sample of States, the researchers were able to establish that, among children, between 0.1% and 2% of infections had resulted in hospitalisation. Children accounted for between 1.6% and 4.2% of the cumulative total number of “covid” hospitalisations.
Confirmation of what we already knew
As regards mortality, children accounted for 0 to 0.25% of the total number of deaths labelled “covid”, i.e. between 0 and 0.03% of deaths relative to the total number of infected children. This is a very low infection fatality risk (or IFR), in the light of the epidemiological data accumulated since the beginning of the pandemic.
For example, during the “first wave” of 2020, the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) had already highlighted the low risk of death among children. Other studies have confirmed the extremely low infection fatality risk among young children .
Maximum pressure on children
The American Academy of Pediatrics report, aware that the pandemic affects the youngest not only through the virus but through its management, calls “for more data to be collected on the long-term impact of the pandemic on children, including the ways in which the virus may damage the long-term physical health of infected children, as well as its effects on emotional and mental health”.
For the time being, the “vaccibuses” and vaccination encouragement sessions are continuing their tour of Belgian schools.
By Sylvie Huygen, citizen journalist at BAM!
Children and Covid-19: State-Level Data Report. https://www.aap.org/en/pages/2019-novel-coronavirus-covid-19-infections/children-and-covid-19-state-level-data-report
Infection fatality rate
Perez-Saez J, Lauer SA, Kaiser L, et al. Serology-informed estimates of SARS-CoV-2 infection fatality risk in Geneva, Switzerland. Lancet Infect Dis. 2021;21(4):e69-e70. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(20)30584-3
https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#demographics
Levin, A.T., Hanage, W.P., Owusu-Boaitey, N. et al. Assessing the age specificity of infection fatality rates for COVID-19: systematic review, meta-analysis, and public policy implications. Eur J Epidemiol 35, 1123–1138 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10654-020-00698-1
Photo source:
SMT alias Alain Schmidt
self-taught, retired resister “he never goes out without his yellow vest
Quotations from English-language sources are translated back here from the French.
