So they did their own research?
Certainly they did. Didnât you?
I donât have to noodle around on the internet. I trust serious doctors and researchers.
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Well, deciding who is âseriousâ does require research.
I suppose we will just disagree on what research is.
The bad information about the Covid vax has caused even previously rational parents to become suspicious of other vaccines.
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The mis- and disinformation that has been so politicized in the name of âfreedomâ is really tragic. So much lingering pain and disability and grief could have been avoided. And it is the parents choice. Like smallpox and polio. Weâve already had the conversation about freedumb and speed limits, muscle cars and the place of government regulations in providing for societal well-being.
I canât speak for your context but here a few figures from the UK. A bad flu year claims around 30,000 people in UK, yet in 2021 146,000 people died of COVID-19. SOURCE:
Not to mention that COVID-19 caused the greatest capacity crisis in the history of the NHS. Fluâs never come close to doing that.
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Experts have been well divided in the world on children and the vaccine to begin with. Some who like to push the needle seem to conveniently ignore all this. There is virtually no need to worry about vaccinating them. Especially with the Covid traveling around being little more than a common cold now in most cases. If they are healthy children, ignore all those giving big pharma free advertising.
Vinnie
Yet the topic of this thread is the vaccine for children.
Which is worse for 5-year-olds? Covid or the flu?
That seems to be the relevant question.
An additional consideration is that Covid is new varieties of the flu have been around for centuries. Maybe the flu is at something of a long term steady state with deviations for varying levels of virulence.
Perhaps year 3 of Covid will differ from the first two years for small children.
I note this word was used again.
That word was discussed before also.
It is worth mentioning that there are flu vaccines for children.
A strain of influenza caused 10âs of millions of deaths and a global pandemic in 1918.
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Yes, not given to everyone, focused on those at risk.
Why isnât that the appropriate approach for Covid?
And your post indicates the flu is more dangerous for 5-year-olds than Covid.
Any child can receive the flu vaccine, and it will benefit all children.
For the COVID vaccine, there is also the consideration of how the disease is spread. How many parents have been infected by their children bringing the infection home?
Where?
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Last time I looked, roughly 50% of kids were vaccinated for flu, and the unvaccinated half had double the deaths. Especially significant in that kids who are high risk are more likely to be vaccinated. Still, not a lot of deaths, but if your kid is one of themâŚ
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Since everyone is at risk, itâs recommended for everyone (over 6 months old).
It is. Everyone is at risk and everyone should be vaccinated. Why compare the risks of flu and covid, anyway? Surely the correct comparison is between the risks of vaccination vs unvaccinated infection for each disease.
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I think it is more complicated that this.
Also to be considered:
- The known side effects of the vaccines.
- The expected success of vaccines in preventing disease.
- The expected success of vaccines in lessening the severity of the disease.
- The potential unknown side effects of vaccines, differentiating between long established and tested vaccines compared to new and relatively untested vaccines.
- The individual childâs situation, both in health and family interactions.
I am sure there are many more considerations.
Phil, would you say that the flu kills a larger percentage of 5-year-olds who catch the flu?
This question is not about total number of deaths, but deaths divided by total cases for 5-year-olds.
I suspect another significant factor is that children whose families have less access to health care are more likely be unvaccinated for the flu. When these children get sick, they are less likely to get prompt care.
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Sure, but the poster I replied to made general points about the seriousness of COVID, to which I replied with general facts. Namely, they claimed that COVID is no worse than flu and a fuss over nothing. This is demonstrably false for the general, unvaccinated adult population. Do we at least agree on that?
You may be right, but I am not willing to roll the dice on my childrenâs health over maybe, perhaps, waddabout arguments. To each his own.
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In my mind, I keep coming back to this:
That is the SARS-CoV-2 transcriptome. Those are the viral mRNAâs that are produced during infection. One of those mRNAâs is from the S gene, otherwise known as the spike protein. That is just one out of many. There are other much longer mRNAâs, and a whole host of proteins that are produced from those mRNAâs in addition to the spike protein.
What mRNA is in the vaccine? Just the mRNA for the spike protein. Thatâs it. It doesnât have all of those other mRNAâs.
What I donât get is why people think the infection is harmless when it comes with all of those mRNAâs, but the vaccine is somehow more dangerous even though it has the same S gene mRNA that is produced by the infection but without all of those other mRNAâs. So what gives?
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Yes, Covid is more dangerous to the general, unvaccinated adult population than the flu is.
And it appears the Covid vaccine is less tested and more dangerous than the flu vaccine.
I have had two Moderna shots, one Pfizer, and Covid. So I am not opposed to Covid vaccines.
The decision for me, a 67-year-old, is much easier than the decision for the parent of a 5-year-old (whose risk of having severe complications from Covid are very, very small).
I do expect you realize that either decision represents a gamble, a roll of the dice.
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