Pfizer Plan for COVID Vaccine Series for Babies of 6 Months Draws Fierce Controversy

Susan Berry, PhD
closeup of a baby

 

Pfizer announced last week the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had asked the drug company, and its partner BioNTech, to submit data on a COVID vaccine series for babies as young as 6 months old.

Albert Bourla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, said in the statement:

As hospitalizations of children under 5 due to COVID-19 have soared, our mutual goal with the FDA is to prepare for future variant surges and provide parents with an option to help protect their children from this virus. Ultimately, we believe that three doses of the vaccine will be needed for children 6 months through 4 years of age to achieve high levels of protection against current and potential future variants. If two doses are authorized, parents will have the opportunity to begin a COVID-19 vaccination series for their children while awaiting potential authorization of a third dose.

The move has caused a firestorm as other countries have already recommended against vaccinating children under 12, because the benefits do not outweigh the risks, Reuters reported.

“With the knowledge we have today, with a low risk for serious disease for kids, we don’t see any clear benefit with vaccinating them,” Sweden Health Agency official Britta Bjorkholm said during a recent news conference.

A study from the UK, published in January at Science Direct, found that even children with immune system impairments or vulnerabilities were not at higher risk for serious COVID illness.

Researchers studied 1,527 children and young adults considered to be “immunocompromised” and found COVID infections occurred in the participants “with no increased risk of severe disease,” and none of them, in fact, died.

Daniel Horowitz, who has regularly chronicled events surrounding the pandemic at The Blaze, wrote regarding the Pfizer announcement, “It’s utterly senseless,” as well as “shocking and immoral”:

Pfizer is submitting its request this week for emergency use authorization of its COVID shot for babies as young as 6 months old through 5 years old. They are quite literally pushing a shot with the hopes of ameliorating symptoms (not stopping transmission) of a virus that is a cold for young children and much less dangerous than RSV. But here’s the kicker: The trial they conducted showed that two doses failed to even produce positive results, and they are still working on a trial for a three-dose regimen.

Horowitz called on Republican governors to “ban shots for babies and toddlers”:

Pfizer is now asking to authorize a dangerous, outdated shot for babies and toddlers, for whom the virus does not pose a statistical risk and for a virus against which the shots have failed to show any benefit. Yet, just as taxes and death are a certainty in life, you can bank on the FDA never turning down any Pfizer request. This is where Republican governors must serve as the safety net for the people. They must actively oppose expanding the shots to the final control group against the greatest experiment on mankind.

In October, FDA authorized the Pfizer vaccine for children aged 5-11 years. Dr. Eric Rubin, a member of the FDA independent advisory panel and also editor-in-chief of New England Journal of Medicine, said in voting to approve it, “We’re never gonna learn about how safe the vaccine is until we start giving it.”

“That’s just the way it goes,” he added.

Nevertheless, a report at The Washington Post last week pointed to a group of parents who are apparently clamoring for their babies and toddlers to be injected. The Post cited a petition at change.org, created by Fatima Khan, which supposedly represents “parents, caregivers, and loved ones of children under 5.”

The petition, which shows over 6,000 signatures, is urging the FDA to “cut the red tape” so that parents can obtain “life-saving COVID-19 vaccines” for their young children.

Individuals on both sides of the political aisle, however, are calling for a reality check.

“What we’re doing to kids is unnecessary and horrible – and I don’t even like kids,” joked Bill Maher, comedian and host of HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. “But making kids, who have a COVID survivability rate of 99.98 percent, mask up like bandits? Unfortunately, the thing that’s getting stolen is their education, their sanity, and their social skills.”

“Last July, President Biden said you’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations,” Maher continued. “Well, I already knew that was wrong then, and now we all do.”

VIDEO: Language warning:

Internist and cardiologist Dr. Peter McCullough noted that at a recent panel held by Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and titled “COVID-19: A Second Opinion,” the senator stated he had invited federal health agency leaders, Pfizer and Moderna CEOs, and others to participate, but all declined.

In an interview with The Epoch Times, McCullough asserted healthy children should not be given the COVID vaccines.

He cited Dr. Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins University, who in June wrote at MedPage that it is wise to “think twice” before giving the COVID vaccine to healthy children:

In reviewing the medical literature and news reports, and in talking to pediatricians across the country, I am not aware of a single healthy child in the U.S. who has died of COVID-19 to date. To investigate further, my research team at Johns Hopkins partnered with FAIR health to study pediatric COVID-19 deaths using approximately half of the nation’s health insurance data. We found that 100% of pediatric COVID-19 deaths were in children with a pre-existing condition, solidifying the case to vaccinate any child with a comorbidity.

McCullough said the lack of long-term safety data of the COVID vaccine on healthy children is a major factor in holding back on vaccinating children, especially as more data are available showing the risks outweigh the benefits.

“In this case, we would never expose children to a vaccine that didn’t have a long-standing safety profile,” he said, particularly one that uses gene transfer technology.

Texas State Representative Chip Roy (R-21), also asserted it is “shameful” to use “the force of government and the culture of fear to jab children under 5 – with zero basis in science – to make billions of dollars.”

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Susan Berry, PhD is national education editor at The Star News Network. Email tips to [email protected].

 

 

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