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Originally Posted by
JCBigler
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But, the dirty little secret to the heard immunity equation is that none of these vaccines are approved for use by children yet.
There is good news on that front. Pfizzer has published a press release on their clinical trial for adolescents aged 12 - 15. The vaccine seems to have 100% effectivity in this age group. They will be submitting the data to the FDA and EMA soon. They have also started clinical trial in kids aged 6 months to 11 years.
https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-re...esults-pivotal
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So, we're probably never going back to life as normal and will be wearing masks in public for the rest of our natural lives.
I don't think so. Once everyone that
wants to get vaccinated has had the opportunity to do so, things change IMO. (From an ethical point of view I mean but also from an epidemiological point of view). But before that, yes we still have to be careful so as not to infect people that haven't had a chance to get vaccinated yet.
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The wife and I have been having some serious conversations about whether to get our 16 year old daughter vaccinated or not. I'm sure the schools are going to require it to go back to in person school next fall. But, we are also both leery of some sort of hidden long term side effects. God help us is we find out that it causes infertility or birth defects in some detectable subset of the population.
Well... keep in mind that you would be choosing between a
possible risk versus
known risks of COVID-19. Risk of hospitalisation or death (small but real) or risk of long COVID-19, including in younger people on the one side, versus a known but tiny risk of side-effects from a vaccine or a
potential risk somewhere in the future. Based on everything we know so far, the odds are very much in favour of vaccination. That is the less risky route.
I am on the science side. So much so that I am participating in a clinical trial and have had my two shots of a new not even yet approved mRNA vaccine. (Potentially they were placebo's but considering the immune response I had, I am quite sure I received the actual vaccine. I will know in a couple of months).
Alistair