Covid-19 and Children - Vaccination Information, Plus Pregnancy and Chiropractic

This week I will address the issue of the Covid-19 virus and Covid-19 vaccination of children. On November 1st federal health officials and the Center for Disease Control voted to give final approval for the Covid-19 vaccination in young children. News outlets everywhere are reporting on the availability of the vaccine, where to get it, and all of the benefits to having young children vaccinated for this virus.  In keeping with my usual style of writing, I will present information to you that is not typically heard of and or reported on in the news.  This information is the other side of the coin, information that you can use to help you make important health care decisions for your children.  I will present facts, not opinions from myself or “talking heads”,  this way you will have the available information to digest and ponder. 

According to the CDC, “Children can be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 and can get sick with COVID-19. Most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms or they may have no symptoms at all (“asymptomatic”). Fewer children have been sick with COVID-19 compared to adults.”  When discussing my family members contracture of Covid-19 with our personal medical doctor, we were told that the majority of pediatric cases presented in the local doctors office had mild symptoms or were completely asymptomatic and the mild cases recovered typically in 4-5 days.  When called by our local county board of health representative to follow-up on our child’s Covid case, the representative asked a slew of questions on what symptoms were occurring and what was the current state of the patient. The board of health representative ended the call by telling us not to worry, as his full time job has been interviewing Covid cases and that the vast majority of children have had mild symptoms and recover quickly.

The CDC states that the children with increased risk of severe cases of Covid-19 is “similar to adults, children with obesity, diabetes, asthma or chronic lung disease, sickle cell disease, cancer or immunosuppression can also be at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.”  The bottom line is that children with underlying medical conditions are at increased risk for severe illness compared to children without underlying medical conditions.  These underlying health conditions are commonly called comorbidities and can factor into severe COVID-19 in children, according to a study published in the Journal of Hospital Medicine. 

Paul Alexander, PH.D is an epidemiologist who is considered a global expert on Covid-19.  He is a medical professor who has published many papers on Covid-19.  Dr. Alexander is the former COVID Pandemic evidence-synthesis advisor to WHO-PAHO Washington, DC (2020) and a former senior advisor to COVID Pandemic policy in Health and Human Services (HHS) Washington, DC  in the U.S. government in the Trump administration; worked/appointed in 2008 at WHO as a regional specialist/epidemiologist in Europe's Regional office Denmark.  Dr. Alexander explains why the vast majority of children who contract Covid-19 have mild cases or are asymptomatic.  1. Children are less likely to get the virus or spread to others because of their noses.  The protein receptors (ACE 2) in children's nasal tissues have less expression then an adult's receptors.  The Covid-19 virus uses these receptors to gain entry into the body's cells.  Less expressive protein receptors means less chance of the virus taking hold. This fact was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, June 2020.  2. Research published in June 2021 in the journal Nature Biotechnology shows that children have an antiviral innate immunity in the upper airways that controls early SARS-CoV-2 infection.  3. Recent research published in the journal Science shows that childhood exposure to common cold viruses, which are actually coronaviruses, created an immune system "memory" that builds a cross protection.  4.  T-cells are very important immune system cells.  In children, the T-cells are untrained or what scientists call "naïve." This naivety allows the untrained T-Cells to respond quicker and mount a more robust response to novel viruses. This response was explained and published in a 11/20 study in the journal Nature Immunology.  5. A Yale University report found that children with Covid-19 fared much better than adults due to two immune system molecules that combat viral replication. The two molecules, Interferon and Interleukin are part of the innate immune system and their levels are much higher in younger people.

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers recently reported that when they looked at a group of about 48,000 children in the U.S. infected with the virus, they found no (zero) COVID deaths among the healthy kids.

How does all this information relate to the Covid-19 vaccination of children?  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends a COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 and older. Johns Hopkins Medicine encourages all families to have eligible children vaccinated with the COVID-19 vaccine. Currently, Pfizer’s vaccine is the only approved COVID-19 vaccine for children.  That being said, a new study on vaccine safety and pregnancy published in the New England Journal of Medicine in October 2021 is being criticized for having grave errors and medical researchers are expressing safety concerns with the vaccine for children and pregnant women.  Two medical researchers from New Zealand, Simon Thornley PH.D and Aleisha Brock PH.D are calling for an immediate halt of the vaccination for pregnant women, breast feeding women and children, due to the miscalculation of data citing errors in the rate of miscarriages. The CDC responded to the concerns by saying they were aware of the higher miscarriage risk but feel the "safety and effectiveness of the Covid-9 vaccine during pregnancy out weighs any known or potential vaccine risks."

The FDA publishes a 242-page book called Communicating Risk and Benefits: An Evidence-Based User’s Guide. The guide states that absolute risk, relative risk and number needed to treat (NNT) are all necessary for proper decision-making.

The CDC’s “Guidance for Health Economics Studies Presented to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)” describes 21 items every health economics study in connection with vaccines must do. In four separate places, the CDC guidance document mentions the importance of coming up with a number needed to vaccinate (NNTV).  Pfizer submitted an Emergency Use Authorization application to the FDA showing no health benefit in children ages 5 to 11 and the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biologics Products Advisory Committee approved it anyway, 17 – 0 with 1 abstention.  If there is no health benefit to being vaccinated in the 5 -11 age group according to Pfizer's EUA application, the number needed to treat (NNT) and the number needed to vaccinate (NNTV) should be zero.  The vaccine was approved for children ages 5-11 despite no NNT and NNTV numbers being given in accordance with CDC and FDA practice guidelines.

From the FDA website:  "The FDA has determined this Pfizer vaccine has met the criteria for emergency use authorization. Based on the totality of scientific evidence available, the known and potential benefits of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in individuals down to 5 years of age outweigh the known and potential risks. The effectiveness data to support the EUA in children down to 5 years of age is based on an ongoing randomized, placebo-controlled study that has enrolled approximately 4,700 children 5 through 11 years of age.  The study is being conducted in the U.S., Finland, Poland and Spain."  I would like to point out that the EUA was voted on and approved based on information from an "ongoing" study.  Not a study that was completed.

Atlantic County, NJ and Covid-19:  Atlantic County has 667 new cases of Covid-19 over the last two week period, down from 746 cases the prior 2 weeks. Our 7 day average cases reported 47 cases per day.  Atlantic County has had 11 deaths in the last two week period down from 21    On 11/5/2021, there were a total of 547 people admitted in all of New Jersey’s hospitals for care of Covid-19 infections, down from 737 a week ago.  In the USA, 429 million doses of the vaccine have been given out.  193 million people are fully vaccinated. 46.4 million people have contracted the Covid-19 virus in the USA.  Research shows that antibody levels and natural immunity that comes from being infected with coronavirus are long lasting and may last longer than 12 months compared to the 6-8 months of fully vaccinated people. Over 80 published research studies show that natural covid-19 immunity is superior to double vaccination.

Vaccine Informed Consent Information:   Informed consent means that the person to be vaccinated has to be informed about all the risks, the risk benefit ratios, the potential dangers and what is known about side effects. For example, informed consent takes place in all drug advertising.  Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System data released 11/5/21 by the CDC showed a total of 856,919 reports of adverse reactions from all age groups following COVID vaccines, including 18,078 deaths. Serious injuries reported in this time period totaled 131,027 between Dec. 14, 2020 and 11/5/2021.  This week’s data for 12- to 17-year-olds show 22,584 total adverse events, including 1,383 rated as serious and 28 reported deaths among 12- to 17-year-olds.  Severe reactions in all age groups of anaphylaxis include 2,072 people, 3,030 reports of myocarditis and 10,686 reports of blood clotting disorders. In the irony department, “CDC strongly recommends COVID-19 vaccination either before or during pregnancy because the benefits of vaccination outweigh known or potential risks,” the agency said in a health alert.  This week’s data for pregnancy /prenatal vaccination shows pregnant women had over 4,206 adverse events reported including 1,320 reports of miscarriage or premature birth.  VAERS is the primary government-funded system for reporting adverse vaccine reactions in the U.S. Reports submitted to VAERS require further investigation before a causal relationship can be confirmed. The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database contains information on unverified reports of adverse events following immunization. Reports are accepted from anyone and can be submitted electronically.

Pregnancy / Prenatal Chiropractic Care info:  

Author

Dr J. Zimmerman, Chiropractor Dr. Zimmerman is a practicing chiropractor from Galloway, NJ with 30 years of chiropractic practice.