Precautionary principle essential on jabs for kids

The Queensland Premier and Health Minister have said recently they want every child from year 6 and above fully or partially vaccinated against Covid before they will consider re-opening the State. The speed with which they are moving ahead with these plans is alarming, especially given so many infectious disease experts, here and overseas, are recommending caution on the roll-out of these injections to children. Many are advising we wait, at least until Phase III trials of the vaccine are all completed and more research has been done on any long-term effects this new mRNA technology could have on children’s still developing bodies.

Professor Robert Booy, who is the Professor of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Sydney and also head of Clinical Research at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance, says that governments shouldn’t be rushing to vaccinate healthy children. “We shouldn’t be rushing something that for children is not a severe illness” he told the Herald Sun earlier this month. Martin Makary, a Professor at the John Hopkins School of Medicine wrote in the Wall Street Journal in July that the evidence behind the vaccination push for children was ‘flimsy’ at best. His team analysed about 48,000 cases of children under 18 diagnosed with Covid-19. “Our report found a mortality rate of zero among children without a pre-existing medical condition such as leukaemia”. The findings, he said, had “significant implications for healthy kids and whether they need two vaccine doses”.

Earlier this month the UK’s vaccine advisory body, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation told the UK government there was still “insufficient evidence” on the long-term effect of these mRNA technologies on young, still developing bodies. The Committee said that given children were at such a low risk from the virus, any roll-out of ‘jabs’ would provide only “marginal gain”. The Committee’s advice was that it did NOT recommend vaccinating “healthy children” in the UK.

The Committee has previously complained about “the habit of government health officials sitting in on their meetings” and interfering in the decision-making process. So far the Committee has stood firm, with the Chairman saying recently that governments should be “taking a precautionary approach”: “The margin of benefit” he said, “is considered too small to support universal Covid-19 vaccination in this age group at this time.”

Clearly, there is sufficient doubt amongst experts as to the long-term effects of these vaccines, to justify excluding children from any government vaccination roll-out targets. If ever a situation called for adopting a ‘precautionary principle’ policy, surely this is it!

MUMS & DADS. Thoughts please?