A medical school professor at Johns Hopkins University said there is not a “compelling” case at the moment to vaccinate healthy children.
“In reviewing the medical literature and news reports, and in talking to pediatricians across the country, I am not aware of a single healthy child in the U.S. who has died of COVID-19 to date,” Marty Makary wrote in a recent essay at MedPage Today. He is the editor-in-chief of the medical news publication.
“I would not recommend a two-dose vaccine regimen for a healthy child ages 0 to 12 years until we have more data,” Makary said. Though it “may make sense” for teenagers.
The medical doctor and a team of Johns Hopkins researchers conducted a study and found “100% of pediatric COVID-19 deaths were in children with a pre-existing condition, solidifying the case to vaccinate any child with a comorbidity.”
He said there is a “extremely low chance of any benefit for healthy children.” He said that vaccines should instead be sent to poorer countries to use to vaccinate their vulnerable populations first.
Furthermore, the possible side effects of vaccinating children outweighs the minimal benefit.
He said:
There may also be unique side effects in children from the second COVID-19 vaccine dose. Seven adolescent children were reported to have myocarditis within 4 days after receiving the second Pfizer vaccine dose. All were in boys ages 16 to 19. Both mRNA vaccines have been found to be 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 in kids. But anytime a medication is found to be 100% effective, it should call to question whether the dose is too high, the interval is too short, or if there is a need for the second dose at all. Pfizer is now looking at lower vaccine doses for children, as they mentioned Tuesday in their announcement that they are starting their vaccine trial in kids under age 12.
Children who had had COVID also do not need to be vaccinated, based on the data reviewed by Makary.
“[N]atural immunity is real and it works,” Makary said.
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