
Here's our letter, published in The Telegram yesterday.
Last week Health Canada approved the Moderna Spikevax vaccine for children aged six months to five years.
“I think it’s great.” NL Premier Andrew Furey told reporters on Thursday. “This is yet just another cohort where we have the chance to lead the world.”
He was referring, of course, to the fact that our province already has the highest vaccination rate in the country. According to Statistics Canada data, 99.49 percent of eligible NL residents have received one dose of the vaccine, 95.16 percent two doses and 55.58 percent the booster shot.
And now the vaccine is to be administered to infants. But should it be?
There are some strong dissenting arguments from epidemiology experts that families might want to consider before taking this route. They include: Children don’t need them. They don’t work. They have not been proven safe.
The problem is that it’s hard to find information backing up these perspectives anywhere on mainstream media. You really have to know where to look. Here in Canada one source is the Canadian Covid Care Alliance (CCCA).
The CCCA is, in their own words, “an association that includes over 600 independent Canadian doctors, scientists, and health care practitioners who are committed to providing quality, balanced, evidence-based information to the Canadian public about COVID-19 so that hospitalizations can be reduced, lives saved, and our country safely restored to normal.” Their perspective on vaccination for infants can be found at: https://www.canadiancovidcarealliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/CCCA-Stop-the-Shot-Video-Presentation-July-15-2022.pdf
This is not a group that opposes vaccination in general, but they do have strong concerns about the COVID vaccines. The evidence they present has probably not been seen by the vast majority of Canadians. Most of us have chosen to accept, without digging deeper, the official narrative that the vaccines are the only way forward in ridding ourselves of COVID.
That’s a fair enough choice when you are making a decision that only affects your own personal welfare. But the burden of responsibility is so much greater when we are talking about children.
I would urge all parents (and grandparents) to thoroughly investigate and consider both sides in the debate before deciding whether or not to choose or support the vaccination option for their children and grand-children.
This is an extremely important decision to have to make.
Marilyn Reid