The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved emergency use authorization of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 shots for infants and toddlers six months and older. Should parents get them for their young children? The shots have been in use among the general population for 1.5 years. There have been 60,442 adverse events related to the shots on the FDA’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. More, millions of people have gotten the shots and COVID is still with us.
Jane Orient, M.D. is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. She minces no words, calling the trial used to support approval “a disgrace.” Dr. Orient points out the lack of effort to measure not just efficacy, but safety, in giving the shots to an age group with zero to no risk of dying from COVID-19.
Jane Orient, M.D. covers a range of questions about the infant and toddler COVID-19 shot approval. Details of the clinical trial include the fact that 67 percent of participants dropped out. What prompted this interest in wanting to provide these shots to young children and why did the trial reverse this trend in parents?
Orient and host AnneMarie Schieber also go over the history of other childhood vaccines. How long did it take to get those approved and how do those diseases compare to COVID? Why are parents so fearful of COVID-1919 infecting their children even though many have been exposed to it, show antibodies and had few to no symptoms? Orient believes the COVID shots will like be part of the panel of recommended shots for children, perhaps mandated for entry to school, yet there has been no effort to examine whether the shots will cause heart damage, already demonstrated in some trials.
