The past year and a half has been a difficult time to be a parent. From home-schooling our kids, to navigating the gray area of varying level of COVID comfort with other families, parents have had to constantly evaluate how to protect our families, and our sanity.
My kids have had every vaccine on the recommended schedule to date. My husband and I have, too. I know that part of the reasons humans live so long today is because of the strides medical professionals have made with vaccines to prevent life threatening diseases. And I'm grateful for this.
But I have some questions about this shot.
Like all of us, I am interested in what science says. What is true about data is that we can all find information to support what we believe. What is true about the media is their job is to get attention, and portray a narrative -- always. And given the highly politicized nature of this issue, it's hard to weed through to find the nuggets of truth.
We cannot glean the full story from mainstream media. As more of our personal, body liberties are decided for us on a governmental scale, and as schools weigh the need to force shot mandates on our children, I feel I have to speak up for those parents who, like me, are asking questions.
Here are five data-based reasons why we will not give our kids the COVID shot.
EFFICACY
What we know about the COVID vaccine is that it offers non-sterilizing immunity. This means that even if you give your child the shot, it does not ensure they will not get and spread the virus.
The viral load in the nasal canal of someone who is vaccinated shows insubstantial difference from someone who is not (meaning it is just as easy to carry and spread). The UK Technical Briefing, one of the largest publicly available sources of data on transmissibility of COVID stated:
"There is limited difference in viral load (and Ct values) between those who are vaccinated and unvaccinated. Given they have similar Ct values, this suggests limited difference in infectiousness."
We're seeing breakthrough cases everyday of those who have gotten the shot.
Your child having the shot does not offer safety for others -- in schools, or for the elders, or immunocompromised in your family. Don't let other people say that your unvaccinated child is any more of threat than anyone else. A vaccinated child can get and spread the virus, too.
Proponents of the shot say that it lessens symptoms associated with COVID once infected. This may be true. For a child with a compromised immune system, you may have to weigh costs and benefits more closely. But giving it to their healthy siblings and friends does nothing to protect them.
Furthermore, it's important to asses REAL level of risk in a population when considering mandates. The CDC regularly publishes number of cases and deaths by age group. For children under 12, the CDC reports 362 COVID related deaths out of 2,733,722 cases through October 14, 2021. In ages 12-17, 314 deaths out of 2,466,183 cases. For both age groups, that's a 99.996% survival rate!
Any child death is a tragic one. But in the scope of threat to life for the whole, it's important to keep perspective.
According to the CDC data, fewer children are dying from COVID than flu/pneumonia. And homicide and drowning are a bigger life threat to children than COVID.
So why are we considering making it mandatory for this age group?
SAFETY
Strains of the COVID virus have been around for decades. Scientists have been working to create a vaccine for this same duration. However, mRNA shots have never safely made it past clinical animal testing. They have never before been used in humans.
Traditional vaccines have a latent form of the virus it fights embedded within them to help the body create immunity to a specific disease. This shot does not. It relies on synthetic additives to initiate spike protein response.
It is truly incredible science. But it has never before been tested in humans.
For parents who spend our entire lives buying GMO free and organic food, avoiding drinks with dyes, and only using shampoos, sunscreens and lotions without parabens, the use of this shot in our children is a philosophical affront.
We're seeing some of the SHORT TERM side effects in vaccinated 12-17 year old populations that include abnormal increase in myocarditis (heart inflammation). An Israel Study of 884,828 vaccinated people found that:
“The risk [of myocarditis] appears to be highest among young men.
We found that the risk of myocarditis increased by a factor of three after vaccination, which translated to approximately 3 excess events per 100,000 persons.
Britain’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) has recommended against COVID injections for healthy 12-15 year old kids because based on their findings...
“There is increasingly robust evidence of an association between vaccination with mRNA COVID-19 vaccines and myocarditis.”
Furthermore for women and girls specifically, there have been over 140,000 documented cases in the U.S. of women experiencing changes in their menstrual cycle after getting the shot (read more). Those are just the documented cases. Further, just through early April, 2021, 100 pregnancy losses were reported in VAERS.
As a parent, one of my questions as it relates to females is as follows: if the vaccine has affected a significant number of women’s menstrual cycle (women whose periods stop for many months post-vaccination), how does the vaccine affect young girls who are in puberty?
We don’t fully know because these vaccines are so new.
We can't yet know MEDIUM and LONGTERM side effects. We haven't had enough time to study, nor see them unfold. I am not interested in having my kids be guinea pigs for this experiment.
Also, in 1986 vaccine companies lobbied to be released of any vaccine-related liability. If anything were to happen to your child from this jab, short term or long, there is absolutely no accountability. When the very creators do not stand behind their product, it certainly makes me raise an eyebrow.
HORMESIS
Hormesis is the process by which a cell or organism is put under stress and comes out more durable on the other side. I speak about hormesis regularly in terms of longevity -- periods of fasting, cold or hot exposure, etc., make for a stronger human.
Part of how our species evolves is by getting viruses, working through them, and developing natural immunity. It's happening all the time, whether we get sick or not. The same goes for absorbing bacteria and strengthening your microbiome by letting your kids play in the dirt.
The COVID virus is no different. Another Israeli study that included 700,000 people found those with prior SARS-CoV-2 infections were 27 times less likely to develop symptomatic infection for a second time, compared to those who were vaccinated.
“Never-infected people who were vaccinated in January and February were, in June, July, and the first half of August, six to 13 times more likely to get infected than unvaccinated people who were previously infected with the coronavirus. In one analysis, comparing more than 32,000 people in the health system, the risk of developing symptomatic COVID-19 was 27 times higher among the vaccinated, and the risk of hospitalization eight times higher.”
A healthy body is meant to heal and adapt to viruses. Now that we understand that the virus has a 99.996% survival rate in our children, why would we force our kids to get a shot with a behavior we don't fully understand, when their natural immunity is even stronger?
Furthermore, a study published in the Journal of Infection this August highlighted the concern of what is known as ADE - antibody dependent enhancement that has been a concern in the scientific community since the commencement of the vaccine campaign.
In a general sense, ADE is a phenomenon in which suboptimal antibodies (induced by a vaccine in this case) bind to a virus and make the virus better at entering the host's cells and replicating.
According to this recent analysis, the original antibodies of the vaccine may have performed well for the SARS-CoV-2 Wuhan strain. But for the Delta Variant, these antibodies produced by the shot show an increased affinity of facilitating antibodies that help the virus infect cells and replicate.
Additionally virologists speak about what is known as Viral Immune Escape. When we put pressure on a virus through mass, non-sterilizing vaccination, the virus will mutate, causing variants. Vaccine induced antibodies dysregulate your innate immune system, making your system even more susceptible to variants because innate immunity was never established.
Nature is far faster at adapting than our drugs could possibly be. There are countless variants originating from different countries right now. I don't plan on chasing boosters for all the many strains that are sure to come to keep my kids safe.
INCOMPLETE DATA
Perhaps one of the most alarming moves recently is the CDC's decision to stop monitoring cases of COVID in vaccinated individuals last spring. This skews the data to only show number spikes in unvaccinated populations, and supports the narrative that the shot is saving us.
Something we're not being told is how long immunity with the shot actually lasts. A study released on August 29, 2021 from Israel attempted to evaluate the above conclusions about Ct values (viral load and transmissibility) being the same in vaccinated and unvaccinated people who contract COVID.
Their conclusion was that after 60 days after receiving the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech, the effectiveness of the vaccine was reduced by 83%, meaning it offered significantly reduced protection. By 6 months, protection was nearly gone.
Furthermore with regards to transmissibility, a NEW study conducted by a top Harvard professor and researcher looked at vaccination rates compared to case counts across 68 countries and 2,947 counties in the U.S.
His study investigated the relationship between the percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases, and it was published in the European Journal of Epidemiology on September 30, 2021. Here is the conclusion from the study:
“At the country-level, there appears to be no discernable relationship between percentage of population fully vaccinated and new COVID-19 cases in the last 7 days. In fact, the trend line suggests a marginally positive association such that countries with higher percentage of population fully vaccinated have higher COVID-19 cases per 1 million people.”
“Across the US counties too, the median new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the last 7 days is largely similar across the categories of percent population fully vaccinated. Notably there is also substantial county variation in new COVID-19 cases within categories of percentage population fully vaccinated. There also appears to be no significant signaling of COVID-19 cases decreasing with higher percentages of population fully vaccinated.”
He concludes:
“The sole reliance on vaccination as a primary strategy to mitigate COVID-19 and its adverse consequences needs to be re-examined, especially considering the Delta (B.1.617.2) variant and the likelihood of future variants. Such course correction, especially with regards to the policy narrative, becomes paramount with emerging scientific evidence on real world effectiveness of the vaccines.”
More data the media fails to highlight are the several studies, including a 540,000 person study conducted by the CDC that indicates that 95% of all COVID deaths are in people with one or more comorbidity risk factors, meaning there was at least one other life-threatening illness occurring at the same time. The number one risk factor for death is obesity. The same study found that the number two risk factor for death is “anxiety and fear-related disorders.”
When we focus on case counts instead of survival rate, ignore the efficacy of the shots in circulation, and disregard the already present, life-threatening health concerns of a person who contracts COVID, we're not seeing the full picture. The headlines tell a very different story than what the data actually shows about real risk for healthy children.
MEDICAL SOVERINTY
Despite the push to "be a good American" and get your shot, the data shows that unvaccinated children are no greater risk to anyone than vaccinated ones.
I certainly respect and understand each parent's need to make decisions for their own family. I am not anti-vax, rather, as Dave Asprey so brilliantly coined, I'm vi-curious -- interested and driven by what data says, supportive of your right to choose.
If that means giving your child the shot, I support you. But when we mandate shots that we haven't time tested for all children, and when we disregard the real risk for children and of true transmissibility, then we make our decisions based on political and philosophical allegiances and narratives, rather than what the data shows us.
As parents, it's our job to understand the risks and make the best decisions for our children, who don't yet have the agency to decide themselves. Without information on both sides, it's impossible to make this decisions wisely.
No matter your stance on this shot, please consider the implications of giving away a parent's right to choose what is best for his or her own child.
And please, share this article with other concerned parents, school boards, and city health officials.
For a more comprehensive analysis of the latest data in this article and beyond, review my husband's White Paper.
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Brie Doyle is the author of You Should Leave Now. She is the founder of She Glows Retreats, LLC. She specializes in developing mental and emotional wellness curriculum. She’s a loving wife and mom to 3 children. @WellBeingByBrie
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