On the 17th of June 2022, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine to prevent COVID-19 for children down to 6 months of age. It's a bold move but supported by many health professionals.
Our Australian national broadcaster aired a piece that includes a pediatrician telling us the vaccines had to go through the
" ... normal clinical trial process which is very robust ... "
before they could be approved by the FDA for use in children.
Robust is not the word I'd use. Especially after following the links from a video by Dr. John Campbell.
You can see the ABC video for yourself if you are curious, but it is only one of many similar so-called news reports on YouTube.
What I do recommend you look at is what Dr. John Campell had to say on the matter. And don't take my word for it. Or anyone's word for that matter. Go directly to the websites after you've seen his video.
Dr. John has been broadcasting almost daily on COVID-19 since January 2020. Before it was even a declared pandemic, he warned about the perils of COVID-19. Dr. John is a British Ph.D. university lecturer, is very measured in what he has to say, and continuously backs up his comments with evidence and citations.
I'll let you draw your own opinion. Dr. John Campbell is careful to present only the data and let you make up your mind. Robust is hardly the word I would use to describe the research backing up the FDA decision. It just gave me cause to wonder about the revolving door between big pharma and the FDA (or equivalent in your nation).
I'm working on an article about the big problem in risk management. The challenge of finding reliable evidence to make risk-informed decisions. OK, it's one of many challenges, but it is a problem that seems to be getting bigger while other challenges such as education and competence are reducing.
I've long argued that we need to be skeptical. We need to make up our own minds on important topics and it is a good rule of thumb to believe half of what you see and a quarter of what you read.
You'll find all the relevant links in the comments at Dr. John's presentation at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Z7RyGWLqAM
Have a listen to the video before you judge the links. As he points out in the video, science by press release is not what you would call best practice. But it seems to be all the evidence that is being published for the moment.
Last but not least, should you be inclined to jump down my throat or cry "heretic" please at least do me the courtesy of watching the video. I'm triple vaccinated in case you are wondering. I'm not anti-vaccine or anti-science. On the contrary. But I do understand some of the limitations of such things. I am very much in favor of reliable evidence and good risk management.
