> Them: The vaccines are more dangerous than the virus!
Children under age 14 are between 6.8 and 17 times less likely to die of Covid-19 than the seasonal flu or pneumonia. And here we are, trying to preemptively vaccinate them against a disease that they are not particularly susceptible to. I'm not sure if the vaccine is more dangerous but if it were, I doubt it would be making headlines.
The argument could be made that vaccinating children helps to protect vulnerable adults, and that them shouldering the risks from vaccination are for the public good, but that's not what the media and government are selling. They are intentionally distorting the facts to make the virus seem more dangerous than it actually is, overstating "long covid" and other pseudoscience, understating the risks, such as blood clots and cardiac conditions, and not being forthright about the risks of vaccinating young people.
My question is: Why not be honest with people? It sounds a lot like the guidance from Early-2020 when the CDC was telling us that masks were not effective in preventing COVID-19 transmission, which they backpedaled by saying they did spread misinformation, but it was "for the protection the supply of PPE for healthcare workers". Why should I trust a government agency that believes lying is OK if it's in the best interest of the government? Why would they be telling the truth now if they have a track record of misrepresenting the facts?
Not dying from Covid does not imply not being susceptible to the disease - it has a sufficiently large proportion of bad long term effects so that we would want to prevent everyone, including children, from getting sick with Covid even they aren't likely to die from it.
Death rate is not the only measure, and it's not the proper measure in this case.
E.g. a recent Norwegian study (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01433-3) had roughly half of young (16-30) people with mild covid (non-hospitalized) still showing harmful effects six months afterwards; so the covid risks/consequences are much worse than any currently known vaccine side-effects even for mild covid in young people. Heck, we're even seeing long-term problems for some people for whom the initial infection was asymptomatic - this is a nasty, risky disease to get, not comparable to diseases that just put you out of work for some time and you're fine if it doesn't kill you.
Children under age 14 are between 6.8 and 17 times less likely to die of Covid-19 than the seasonal flu or pneumonia. And here we are, trying to preemptively vaccinate them against a disease that they are not particularly susceptible to. I'm not sure if the vaccine is more dangerous but if it were, I doubt it would be making headlines.
The argument could be made that vaccinating children helps to protect vulnerable adults, and that them shouldering the risks from vaccination are for the public good, but that's not what the media and government are selling. They are intentionally distorting the facts to make the virus seem more dangerous than it actually is, overstating "long covid" and other pseudoscience, understating the risks, such as blood clots and cardiac conditions, and not being forthright about the risks of vaccinating young people.
My question is: Why not be honest with people? It sounds a lot like the guidance from Early-2020 when the CDC was telling us that masks were not effective in preventing COVID-19 transmission, which they backpedaled by saying they did spread misinformation, but it was "for the protection the supply of PPE for healthcare workers". Why should I trust a government agency that believes lying is OK if it's in the best interest of the government? Why would they be telling the truth now if they have a track record of misrepresenting the facts?