The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has approved adding the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna to the list of recommended childhood vaccines for children six months and older.
Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are still under emergency use authorization (EUA), making their approval for inclusion on the Vaccines for Children (VFC) schedule unprecedented and dangerous.
Pjmedia.com reports: On October 12, the FDA approved a EUA for the omicron vaccine version from Pfizer for children five and older. The Moderna version earned a EUA for children six and older. The CDC immediately followed suit. Neither agency convened its advisory committees to evaluate the data. The original vaccine series is authorized under a EUA for children older than six months.
The committee emphasized that adding the COVID vaccines to the VFC ensured access to families who cannot afford vaccines and reiterated that the agency does not issue vaccine mandates for school attendance. These statements are performative, as it is well-established that states and school districts use the VFC to issue mandates.
California was the most aggressive state in announcing a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for school attendance shortly after the FDA and CDC approved the jabs for school-age children. However, implementation is now delayed until at least 2023. Likewise, New York City pushed back its mandate, and Washington D.C. will likely delay its requirement at a meeting on November 1. All of them may now use the ACIP recommendations to move ahead.
In late September, just before the approval of omicron vaccines for children, a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory group Dr. Paul Offit observed the following about vaccines and boosters for children:
Current CDC guidelines require that an individual receive the original two-dose vaccine series before receiving the dose formulated for omicron. According to the CDC, only 31.6% of children aged five to 11 and 60.8% of those aged 12-17 completed the initial series of vaccines.
In the same interview Offit cited data on previous booster campaigns to advocate for boosters staying focused on specific populations:
During the hearing, the presentation included data on COVID-19 hospitalizations among vaccine-eligible children according to CDC tracking. This data does not delineate between hospitalization with and hospitalization for COVID-19. Even Dr. Fauci admitted that a COVID-19 hospitalization in a child is often incidental. The virus is only detected through mandatory testing, and a child may be admitted for another illness.
The presenters used this data to try to make the case that omicron has proven significantly more deadly for children than previous variants. If this were the experience of the public, parents would be lining up to get their young children vaccinated. That has not happened.
Leave a Reply