8 Comments

UK policy-makers need to imagine if they lost access to polio vax for their kids. It's a similar calculus, and no one wants their kid to be the one with complications.

Expand full comment

Thank You for this. Would you or any of the people in comments know if someone from England can fly to the republic of Ireland to get a private Covid vaccine for their child between 6months and 12 years old? I can see there are private walk in clinics but I can't find information about someone visiting Ireland pay for and get a vaccine.

Expand full comment

"For children in England under 5 years old, only those with significant underlying health conditions have ever been eligible for COVID-19 vaccination. Since 2023, only children with significant underlying health conditions are eligible for any SARS-CoV-2 vaccines across all age groups." Does this constraint make any medical sense I am unable to discern?

Expand full comment

Great post and paper! Finally someone hightlighing this. Have you also researched (or know of) similar studies for toddlers and young children? It's something I've always been suspicious of but never got anything else than the "immunity debt" ridiculous answer.

Expand full comment

ALSO, regarding slightly older children, I recall Osterholm, CIDRAP Director at UMinn, saying the number of admissions of r the toddler and preschool range remained high, second only to the 75+ age group. That’s a pretty scary statistic.

Overall, the percentage of people planning to get this year’s vaccine is frighteningly low, because people have normalized COVID-19 in their minds. They’re not paying attention to the number of people hospitalized (although that number remains difficult to ascertain until the new rule mandating all hospitals report COVID cases) nor to the number of deaths attributed to COVID. I believe that number was close to 400, still alarmingly high, if not near the numbers seen in early 2021 and 2022.

And worse, I’ve seen no real evidence we will be ready for the next outbreak to come down the road. We didn’t enough of the lessons this last time around.

Expand full comment

I’ve had mine, and flu on Thursday coming. I’m a carer for my mum, plus I have asthma. I really don’t want either virus. But if I do encounter it, I want the lightest dose possible. I don’t Understand why we have suddenly become so vaccine resistant during a major pandemic.

Expand full comment

And now, I’ve gotta get the paper, read it, archive it and propagate the information. I’ll note that just yesterday, in an operating room, I was essentially told by everyone present that the vaccines are useless or ineffective, and none of them was going to get vaccinated or boosted again.

This post, and your paper do an excellent job of illustrating that the Pandemic isn’t over. The end of a pandemic is determined by history, not an arbitrary decision by government or the public. That is the exact story you’re telling here. Thank you.

Expand full comment