I’m not willing to bet on my grandchildren’s health
In the COVID immunity article that appeared in the March 28 Dayton Daily News, you have this paragraph: “Most people agree that vaccine hesitancy is perhaps the largest challenge to overcome. Others say that reaching herd immunity could be difficult until children and young people can be vaccinated.”
Much of your article was well-cited, but this paragraph seems more like an opinion because you did not cite your sources. Journalists should not do this. Without a citation, it’s just your opinion.
In the vaccination article, you devote almost three columns to comments from people who support getting vaccinated now. You devote one column to comments from people who are not choosing to get vaccinated right now. Why the imbalance? It makes the whole article very biased.
Both of your articles ignore the fact that approximately 30% of those infected with COVID-19 show no symptoms (CDC estimate). So, many, many people have already been infected and carry natural immunity. To date, there is no evidence that vaccines provide better immunity than naturally-infected immunity and a strong argument can be made that natural immunity will be better at fighting off future infections. So, if you’ve already proven that the disease won’t hurt you (you’ve tested positive, but had no significant symptoms), and your immunity is equal to those getting vaccinations, why would you want to be vaccinated?
Some health facts are taken from the Ohio COVID19 website:
■ Only four children (ages 0-19) in Ohio have died from COVID-19. All had severe health problems before contracting the the disease. Basically, Ohio’s children have zero probability of dying from COVID-19.
■ Only 19 young people ages 20-29 have died from COVID-19 in Ohio. Most of them had other health factors contributing to their deaths. (Data from 3/5/2021)
■ If you are under age 50 in Ohio, your probability of dying after becoming infected with COVID-19 is less than one-tenth of 1%. It is less than your chances of dying from your everyday life.
So, with these very low chances of dying after being infected with COVID-19 for our younger Ohio population, don’t you think we should first find out, for these age groups, what the long-term risks of vaccination are? Please, tell me what the 1-3 year outcome is for children being vaccinated with the new mRNA vaccines. What about the 5-10-year outcomes? 10-30 year outcomes? You can’t, because there are no data beyond a few months. These mRNA vaccines are very new, not completely tested experiments. I think they are an incredible medical technology breakthrough and will have immense positive outcomes in our future. But I guarantee you that there will be unforeseen problems also.
I wouldn’t be willing to bet my grandchildren’s longterm health on this incompletely tested technology. Not when I KNOW my grandchildren would NOT die from the disease.
Your articles debate the previous sentence by implying it is the obligation (through herd immunity) to protect the vulnerable (elderly and those with other health problems) by experimenting with our children’s health. It is a shame we’ve become a society that is willing to sacrifice the health of the young (experimental vaccinations, loss of a year’s worth of quality education, mental health risks, physical health risks due to postponement of health procedures, etc.) in exchange for protection of the elderly. I’m all for protecting the elderly and those with health problems, but I’m not for risking our children’s and young people’s future to do so.