USA Today (10/28/21) framed vaccinating children against Covid as a “tough decision” that involved “weighing the risks.”
After an FDA advisory panel authorized Pfizer/BioNTech’s pediatric dose for kids ages 5–11 in a 17–0 vote (with one abstention), USA Today (10/28/21) responded with the headline, “Weighing the Risks of Vaccines for Kids: Unknowns Will Make It a Tough Decision for Some.”
In its online version (10/27/21), the paper phrased it: “Covid Vaccines for Kids Aren’t as Clear-Cut as for Adults: Five Factors for Parents to Consider.”
The clear message in either case was that parents would need to navigate a high degree of uncertainty about whether they should vaccinate their children.
The problem with that message is that the public health consensus is in fact clear: The risks of vaccination are far lower than the risks of Covid, so children should be vaccinated. (Beyond the FDA’s expert panel approval, see, for example, the American Academy of Pediatrics, 8/5/21; Time, 10/30/21; Johns Hopkins, 10/27/21.)
‘Factors to consider’
USA Today‘s Karen Weintraub introduced the article by contrasting adult vaccination, for which “the evidence…is clear,” with vaccinating the 5–11 age group, for which “the story…isn’t as clear-cut.” Vaccination makes an adult six times less likely to contract Covid, Weintraub explained, and 11 times less likely to die from it.
Without offering an immediate contrast with outcomes for children that would explain why the story is less clear-cut, Weintraub went on to note that the FDA advisory panel “concluded the benefits of vaccination outweigh the risks for this age group.”
The prospect of CDC approval this week, she wrote, means that
parents are likely soon to be faced with a choice: Would they rather take the small chance of their child falling seriously ill from Covid-19, or the even smaller chance that they will be harmed by the shots intended to protect against it?
USA Today is here “to help with that decision,” the article continued, offering a wide array of information about Covid and vaccination in kids, including several points that seemed intended to support the argument against vaccination, like “even without vaccination, it’s possible to protect children by wearing masks indoors and vaccinating the adults in their lives,” and “every vaccine brings some risks.”
Under a subsection titled, “Factors to Consider,” the article noted that “a vaccine provides more predictable protection than infection, but an infection may offer broader protection against variants, studies in adults have shown”—as if it’s an either/or choice. (To suggest that parents might choose infection with Covid, which has killed 177 children in the US between 5 and 14 years old, as an alternative to vaccination is shockingly irresponsible.)
‘Public perception of vaccines’
Online, USA Today (10/27/21) said that “Covid Vaccines for Kids Aren’t as Clear-Cut as for Adults”—but acknowledged 18 paragraphs in that “the risks are theoretical.”
Four paragraphs from the end, Weintraub wrote, concerning “a parent’s anxiety level”: “There are no known serious risks from vaccination and its effectiveness is clear, so a parent who would feel better if their child is vaccinated can easily justify their decision.”
In other words, the scientific consensus—that the vaccines are safe and effective—becomes, in USA Today‘s telling, not the main takeaway and the foundation for parental decision-making, but something that’s primarily relevant only to those who are anxious about Covid.
For those less concerned, Weintraub gave the lone abstaining FDA panelist the last word:
While there are clearly high-risk groups in the 5–11 age group for which the vaccine would significantly reduce serious disease, I do not expect protection from infection to last more than a few months, and this may negatively affect public perception of vaccines.
Public perceptions of vaccines are largely shaped by the information they’re given about them. Surveys show that up to two-thirds of their parents are reluctant to vaccinate their kids when the shot becomes available. It’s a major information gap that credible news media should be working to overcome, not to reinforce.
ACTION:
Please tell USA Today that its reporting on child Covid vaccination should lead with the fact that “there are no known serious risks from vaccination and its effectiveness is clear.”
CONTACT:
Michael McCarter
Managing Editor for Standards, Ethics & Inclusion
Email: mmccarter@gannett.com
Twitter: @therealmccarter
Remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread.
I greatly appreciate and respect most of what FAIR does, but carrying (toxic) water for Big Pharma is shockingly disappointing.
The author’s own comment “..Covid, which has killed 177 children in the US between 5 and 14 years old..” proves the absurdity of the core claim.
How many deaths are there likely to be from simply taking each child to get the vaccine?
Figure 10 miles avg round-trip x 100,000,000 children in the U.S. = 1 Billion miles driven.
But maybe you believe that’s on the high side for whatever reason, so let’s cut that # in Half to more than cover any concern.. it’s still 500,000,000 Miles.
How many vehicle accidents from those 500 Million miles driven?
How much toxic gasoline is burned from driving all those miles?
How many vaccine batches or doses may be bad for any reason of 100 Million+ doses?
How many adverse reactions to 100 Million+ doses?
How many shots not injected properly..so they go directly into the bloodstream rather than muscle tissue?
And we do NOT know the long-term potential harm from the shiny new mRNA vaccine approach. Just as all the experts didn’t know about any of many Hundreds of chemicals, drugs, products that were toxic in some way until (often) Decades later!
Here’s just a micro-list off the top of my head..
DDT
J&J’s talcum *Baby* powder..$2.1 Billion fine (they’re trying to weasel out)
Asbestos
Lead in paint, pipes, etc
Mercury
RoundUp = Glysophate (casues cancer & Bee Colony Collapse)
HRT – Hormone Replacement Therapy
Toxic Shock Syndrome
Teflon
BPA’s
Smoking, inc 2nd-hand
Fossil Fuels = Greenhouse Gases, and directly harmful pollutants
Agent Orange
Thalidomide
Aerosols, Refrigerants = bad for Protective Ozone Layer
Dioxins
Numerous Pesticides
Numerous Herbicides
Vioxx
OxyContin – note 6-part doc-film ‘DopeSick’ (on Hulu) + CounterPunch article from mid-summer 2021
Hundreds & Hundreds more examples..
It is downright Criminal to subject 100,000,000+ children to a new type of vaccine for something that is statistically near Zero in deaths of healthy children.
FAIR, of all orgs, is profoundly aware of the devastating influence-power of “Corporate Capture” of Govt Regulatory Agencies–not to mention massive influence of Big Pharma over Doctors and University research labs.
Please…PLEASE stop carrying this toxic water on behalf of Big Pharma Mega-Profits.
If you want to actually SAVE children’s lives then instead of focusing on a minuscule 177, focus on saving 9,000,000 children’s lives dying from extreme poverty.
Yes, each one of those 177 lives is precious.. but then how about those 9,000,000 children’s lives lost every single year to something that is Relatively cheap & easy to prevent..
Guess they had to “pay the piper” after that massive (by FAIR’s standards) by BMGF LOL They have a lot of company: Democracy Now, Counterpunch, etc. Ain’t y’all ever heard of VAERS?
If, fewer than 700 have died (with PCR tests) and Mis-C cases have increased, prodigiously. Inoculation, of previously infected kids (who can still infect, while asymptomatic & have FAR higher viral counts) seems a cruel and cynical act of desperation, to keep family members at work; frequently now, 1099 gigs, without health insurance, sick-leave, or ability to pay for chronic PASC organ damage? Media simply repeating falsehoods like NOT masking indoors, after vaccination spread Delta and Lambda (just as kids were sent back to school, to vector new strains to increasingly vulnerable, early mRNA recipients. It really seems crazy?
https://khn.org/morning-breakout/mis-c-cases-in-children-have-jumped-12-since-august-cdc-says/
with you completely. there’s so much evidence of vaccine harm–and so little of Covid harm for folks under twenty that I
can’t figure out how progressive elements (NOAM CHOMSKY!!!, FAIR, Amy Goodman, Counterpunch, etc) have missed all the discussion and are still supporting the Jab. Theyhave crtainly lost my support.
I agree, this editor is not doing a FAIR job!
Inoculated against empiricism
Intentionally infecting millions of kids with novel strains, THEN inoculating with vaccines, without IgA/ IgG, spike protein & other measurement of immunity & pro-inflammatory cytokine damage is insanity. We’re already causing unknown numbers of chronic PASC, by making little kids vectors, infecting teachers, drivers, loved-ones; to force parents back to work. LYING about kids infecting others pre/ asymptomatically without effective testing (intentionally NOT testing most vaccinated kids/ staff is EXACTLY what we’d ALL righteously decried Cuomo, Trump and red state kleptocrats (lying by hiding breakthroughs, many civilized nations have repeatedly reported in huge, double blind, peer reviewed studies. ALL you’d have to do, is test kids and delay single doses. My Moderna inflammatory side effects were FAR worse than acute D.614.G infection or PASC symptoms. Some kids will have MUCH worse inflammatory side-effects, this is crazy hive-minded echo-chamber “live with COVID” agitprop. “Science” is NOT smug authoritarian Sophistry. You folks need to review Italy, Spain, Israel, France, Germany ALL doing the right thing since Feb/ March.
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2021/11/vaccine-plus-previous-infection-may-offer-enhanced-covid-19-protection
Vaccines do cause genetic problems — but not directly. There are obvious bad impacts from screwing with the Darwinian order. Vaccination and modern medicine has allowed a lot of genetic traits to be passed on to the next generation. No wonder we see all sorts of allergies, autism, and cancers in the developed world now that used to not exist.
“… no known serious risks”? “effectiveness is clear”!? You too are drinking the koolaid (along with the ACLU on mandates)? What an upside down world we’re living in.
I remember when Big Pharma was evil. And now they are our saviors? I remember when FAIR used to be critical thinkers. I guess no more.
Oh boy, are we in trouble.
Thanks but no thanks.
Exactly my point, yesterday, thanks all you folks. We’d been infected, based on circumstances CAUSED by Cuomo, Trump & de Blasio’s LIES, sneeringly repeated by ALL media. Discovery of factual posts by Asian, Italian, then US clinicians, epidemiologists, were EASILY verified throughout. We simply ignored CDC, WHO and ALL media, feeding us “essentials” to a virus that killed 100x more US citizens, per Capita than Koreans! NYC, basically killed 34K by repeating: “Just go about your business, as normal!” I was happy to get Moderna, at first it worked better than claimed. This is NOT that set of circumstances! We need media that doesn’t simply repeat the same BS, specious, cherry-picked obfuscation. The entire “Let ‘er RIP,” Live with an exponentially mutating virus with a R0>6 is horse-shit. Stop INFECTING kids for yuppie portfolios!
https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2021/11/british-medical-journal-researcher-blows-the-whistle-on-data-integrity-issues-in-pfizers-vaccine-trial.html
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2477
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2021/10/6/22713416/covid-testing-consent-nyc-school
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/coronavirus/in-depth/covid-19-vaccines-for-kids/art-20513332#can-affect-heart
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2021/11/03/pers-n03.html
I would trust journalists and many of those in the medical profession if they simply stated that they don’t know. None of us expect our medical professionals to know all answers. We expect them to use science to guide us in the right direction but to also tell us of any uncertainties and risks due to unknowns.
Neither the media, FDA, AMA, nor many doctors have done exactly that. Shame on them for stating opinions and politics as facts when none of them know with certainty.
Maybe the author of this story should watch the FDA discussion on vaccinating kids.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=laaL0_xKmmA&feature=youtu.be
To quote Dr Rubin “The vaccine is pretty safe” and “We’re never going to learn about how safe the vaccine is unless we start giving it, and that’s just the way it goes. That’s how we found out about rare complications of other vaccines.“
These are the “experts“ determining if we should inject children with a vaccine tested for 3 months.
Good points. It is Criminal to force these brand new (thus Highly Experimental) mRNA vaccines on children.. there is Far more danger from vaccinating 100 Million children than from barely 1 in a Million healthy children dying from Covid.
The ‘experts’ we hear on M$M are mostly shills (wittingly or not) for Big Pharma.
Maybe this just out (Nov 2) will encourage the FAIR author/editor to reconsider vaccine safety — especially for the 100 Million children at Extremely low risk (risk of death from Covid is roughly 1 in a Million for Healthy children).
BMJ is a highly respected medical journal.
Note: The British Medical Journal is one of the world’s top four most cited general medical journals.
———-
Covid-19: Researcher blows the whistle on data integrity issues in Pfizer’s vaccine trial
Revelations of poor practices at a contract research company helping to carry out Pfizer’s pivotal covid-19 vaccine trial raise questions about data integrity and regulatory oversight.
In autumn 2020 Pfizer’s chairman and chief executive, Albert Bourla, released an open letter to the billions of people around the world who were investing their hopes in a safe and effective covid-19 vaccine to end the pandemic. “As I’ve said before, we are operating at the speed of science,” Bourla wrote, explaining to the public when they could expect a Pfizer vaccine to be authorised in the United States.
But, for researchers who were testing Pfizer’s vaccine at several sites in Texas during that autumn, speed may have come at the cost of data integrity and patient safety. A regional director who was employed at the research organisation Ventavia Research Group has told The BMJ that the company falsified data, unblinded patients, employed inadequately trained vaccinators, and was slow to follow up on adverse events reported in Pfizer’s pivotal phase III trial. Staff who conducted quality control checks were overwhelmed by the volume of problems they were finding. After repeatedly notifying Ventavia of these problems, the regional director, Brook Jackson, emailed a complaint to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Ventavia fired her later the same day. Jackson has provided The BMJ with dozens of internal company documents, photos, audio recordings, and emails. ….
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2635
Just tried to post Yale Medicine’s VERY sensible precautions, on Gothamist’s article, cheering on $100 payments to force your kids’ inoculation (with <25% of NYC unvaccinated kids quick tested & the rest… well, it was removed as SPAM, go figure?) We've a LETHAL pandemic going on; and it's using COVID to enrich dead-eyed churls who'd voted them in, to monitize our sacrifice!
“If you or a loved one experiences chest or heart pain after vaccination (or at any other time), seek medical attention. It’s always a good idea to have it checked out by a doctor. The CDC also says to be on the lookout for shortness of breath and/or a rapid, fluttering, or pounding heartbeat following vaccination and to seek medical attention if you or your child experience these symptoms.
While physicians are waiting for more information and guidance from the CDC and FDA, it may put minds at ease to know that cardiologists find that “in general, if the heart has a temporary inflammation, it gets better,” says Dr. Lampert…”
https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2477
https://ny.chalkbeat.org/2021/10/6/22713416/covid-testing-consent-nyc-school
https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/myocarditis-coronavirus-vaccine
https://gothamist.com/news/eligible-nyc-kids-can-snag-100-incentive-getting-covid-vaccine-city-run-sites
Looks as though you’re becoming “mainstream.”
(email sent to:) Dear MMC Carter,
I agree with the USA today article that childhood vaccination may carry unnecessary risks. The FAIR article contradicting this does not take into acct . other valid points of view,many of which are based on facts that oppose big pharmas information.(if one has the fairness to check other facts and studies). I am disappointed in FAIR in this regard.
Sincerely, Foster Goodwill, Boulder, Co.
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting? Really now. There are thousands of independent scientists, virologists, medical doctors and epidemiologists world wide that have everything to lose and nothing to gain are being censored for daring to want to allow science to be discussed, and FAIR focuses on an article questioning the “official narrative?” “There are no known serious risks from vaccination and it’s effectiveness is clear?” Two blatant lies in one statement.