Tag Archives: children

This morning.

The youngest children have been most affected by lockdowns and closures during the Covid pandemic, new UK research finds.

Via The Guardian:

The research – published by the Education Endowment Foundation – found parents and teachers concerned that children in England were struggling with their emotional wellbeing as well as their ability to learn language and numeracy skills, after starting in reception classes after the earlier spring lockdown.

Teachers who spoke to the researchers said the disruption had left some infants with “low self-esteem and confidence”, and that more children than previously “feel overwhelmed” by learning.

Others highlighted increased behaviour problems seen when children returned to school, with some “biting, hitting, unable to share”, leading to teachers having to focus more on helping children settle back into school.

Ruth Coleman, headteacher at Highfield school in Ipswich, said: “When children returned to our nursery after the pandemic, many struggled with vital aspects of early years development, such as personal touch, or coping in bigger groups of children.

Younger children most affected by Covid lockdowns, new research finds (The Guardian)

Meanwhile…

RollingNews

This afternoon.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorised a booster dose for young children ages 5 to 11 years old.

Via FDA:

Today, we amended the emergency use authorisation (EUA) for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, authorizing the use of a single booster dose for administration to individuals 5 through 11 years of age at least five months after completion of a primary series with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine.

“While it has largely been the case that COVID-19 tends to be less severe in children than adults, the omicron wave has seen more kids getting sick with the disease and being hospitalized, and children may also experience longer term effects, even following initially mild disease,” said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D.

“Vaccination continues to be the most effective way to prevent COVID-19 and its severe consequences, and it is safe.”

FDA Expands Eligibility for Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine Booster Dose to Children 5 through 11 Years (FDA)

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Um.

This morning.

Unravelling the Role of the Mandatory Use of Face Covering Masks for the Control of SARS-CoV-2 in Schools: A Quasi-Experimental Study Nested in a Population-Based Cohort in Catalonia (SSRN)

Junior Infants teacher Jennifer Ní Chathaláin, of Gaelscoil Uí Drisceoil, Glanmire, county Cork

This afternoon.

Via RTE news:

Junior infants  teacher Jennifer Ní Chathaláin can now use facial expressions as well as her voice to teach her class of five and six-year-olds as, for the first time in a long, long time, she no longer has to wear a face mask in class.

“It’s the sense of normality that we have missed,” she told RTÉ News.

“I’m looking forward to being able to sit down and do circle time, with the kids sitting next to them on the carpet and reading a book to them, where they can sit wherever they want. It’s the structure and rigidity of the restrictions that have really been felt.

“Now it feels like it’s just back to normal, the way it should be in a junior infants class, where kids can mix and socialise and they can develop new friendships and they can expand their social networks.

“It’s a really positive day today.”

Five-year old Seb MacCarthaigh agrees.

“I am really happy because I can hear Múinteor Jennifer’s voice and I can see her face,” he said.

😄.

Cork school ‘delighted’ to ‘see children smiling’ (Paschal Sheehy, RTE)

Pic via RTE news

Yesterday.

Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

In fairness.

Meanwhile…

Yesterday.

Seanad Eireann.

Independent Senator Sharon Keogan called for the immediate unmasking of schoolchildren

She told the chamber:

“I want to raise the issue of unmasking schoolchildren. When the National Public Health Emergency Team, NPHET, decided that primary school children should be masked back at the start of December, the National Parents Council was flooded with calls from concerned parents.

“They did not feel that they had been given enough information to understand why their children now needed to wear masks when all through the pandemic mask wearing had not been required. Perhaps since then that information has been given but certainly since then that information has changed.

“It has been over a week since restrictions have been lifted and it has been so good to see so many people around the country. However, children as young as eight years are being told to keep their masks on for hours on end during the school day even as us adults are out enjoying meals and spending time in pubs. I think that it is wrong.

“When the whole population was unvaccinated and hospitals were bursting at the seams, parents were told that it was inappropriate for under-13-year-olds to wear face masks. Now that is where we are but out of it, we still subject children to stricter restrictions than adults.

“Dr. Jeanne Noble directs the Covid response for the University of California, San Francisco emergency department. She is part of a group of physicians and scientists who have announced a national campaign in the US to restore normalcy to children’s lives by putting them first in line for the lifting of mask wearing mandates and other restrictions once the Omicron surge passes.

“I know that the mask mandate is due to be reviewed at the end of February but I strongly believe that we should do this before that date. We can bring a smile back to our children’s faces. They also need a plan for exiting the pandemic and we should allow them to get back to normal life.”

Previously: “I Have Never Seen Such Anger In Mothers”

RollingNews

Meanwhile…

Um.

In case you missed it.

Via Sunday Express:

More than thirty doctors, scientists and MP’s have signed a joint letter to the government’s vaccine watchdog urging it to “reassess” the Covid vaccine rollout for healthy 12-15-year-olds following new data showing potentially serious harms of the jab are likely to outweigh any potential benefits.

The letter urges the government to ‘reassess’ the Covid vaccine rollout for healthy 12-15 year olds.

The letter has been signed by 12 scientists, medical experts and 21 peers and MPs including the former president of the Royal College of General Practitioners, a former government vaccine advisor, paediatricians and experts in infectious disease as well as 21 politicians and peers.

It argues the risk benefit calculations made by the JCVI and the Chief Medical Officer were based on “less than complete data on both the harms and the benefits of vaccinating children compared to the evidence now available.”

It cites new evidence showing the risk of myocarditis in young men and boys is up to 14 times higher after vaccination than after infection.

And it states that given the high level of naturally acquired immunity from infection as well as the replacement of the Delta variant by milder Omicron, “it’s crucial that, if we are to proceed with the mass double vaccination of healthy children, we are absolutely certain this policy will do more good than harm.”

Signatory Professor Brent Taylor, Professor Emeritus of Community Child Health, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, said:

“The latest CDC data reports elevated rates of post-vaccination myocarditis for boys aged 12-15, 2.5-24 times higher in the seven days after the first dose and 24-228 times higher in the seven days after the second dose.

“So, whilst the absolute risks are still low they cannot be described as trivial and the absolute risk from Covid-19 to healthy children is negligible. Additionally, the vaccines stop neither infection nor transmission and many children will have broad and robust natural immunity following infection.

“I’m afraid the mass vaccination of healthy children is not based on sound evidence. It is time for the JCVI, the CMO and the Government to reassess all the evidence now available and alter its recommendation accordingly.”

Doctors and scientists urge caution in giving Covid jabs to ‘low risk’ children (Sunday Express)

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This afternoon.

Via Mary McCarthy in the Irish Independent:

…When I was deciding for my 13-year-old, who is as tall as I am, it was easy. The risks of side-effects were said to be very low, he was starting secondary and I wanted to avoid Covid disruption. I recall it was announced around then that vaccinated people would no longer be considered close contacts – which meant it was a no-brainer.

For my younger kids, with their less formed bodies, the same argument is there to get the jab, but I spent longer poring over the HSE information (which is very reassuring) and listening extra closely when experts discussed this before deciding it was a good idea.

I am not overly anxious about my kids getting Covid, even if I am worried they might pass it on to their grandparents. But with school life still upended two years into the pandemic, if vaccinations for primary children can help forge a way back to normal, I say bring it on…

Tip-toeing around jabs for kids does us no good, so bring it on – they need to get their lives back (Mary McCarthy. Independent.ie)

Meanwhile…

Saturday’s Irish Times

Um.

‘Afterwards I got a sticker’: Hundreds of children line up for Covid-19 vaccine (Irish Times)

This morning

Meanwhile…

…via RTÉ News:

Minister for Education Norma Foley will meet public health officials, teachers’ unions and school management to discuss the reopening of schools.

Government ministers have said they expect schools to reopen as planned on Thursday.

However, the Association of Secondary Teachers, Ireland has called for a delayed and staggered reopening of schools, saying it would be an “unacceptable risk” for schools to reopen, without additional Covid-19 safety measures being put in place.

ASTI says union committed to reopening schools in ‘coherent, sensible fashion’ (RTE)

BBC

Meanwhile…

Meanwhile…

This afternoon.

Further to the Taoiseach Micheal Martin’s call on parents to get their children vaccinated promising separate ‘child-friendly’ COVID-19 vaccination clinics for five to 11-year-olds in the new year…

…Via Daily Expose:

‘86% of 12-15-year old Children suffered an Adverse Reaction to the Pfizer Covid-19 Vaccine in the Clinical Trial’

The information is publicly available and contained within a US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) fact sheet which can be viewed here (see page 25, table 5 on-wards).

That fact sheet contains two tables that detail the alarming rate of side effects and damage experienced by 12 – 15- year-old children who were given at least one dose of the Pfizer mRNA injection.

The tables shows that 1,127 children were given one dose of the mRNA jab, but only 1,097 children received the second dose. This fact in itself raises questions as to why 30 children did not receive a second dose of the Pfizer jab.

Of the 1,127 children who received a first dose of the jab 86% experienced an adverse reaction. Of the 1,097 children who received a second dose of the jab 78.9% experienced an adverse reaction.

‘1 in 9 Children suffered a Severe Adverse Reaction leaving them unable to perform daily activities in the Pfizer Clinical Trial’

For children 12 to 15 years of age, the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine clinical trial found the overall incidence of severe adverse events which left them unable to perform daily activities, during the two-month observation period to be 10.7%, or 1 in 9, in the vaccinated group and 1.9% in the unvaccinated group.

Consequently, children who received the vaccine had nearly six times the risk of a severe adverse event occurring in the two-month observation period compared to children who did not receive the vaccine. In addition, the incidence of Covid-19 in the unvaccinated group was 1.6%, therefore, there were almost seven times more severe adverse events observed in the vaccinated group than there were Covid-19 cases in the unvaccinated group.

This information is all freely available to see in official Food and Drug Administration (FDA) documents and official Centre for Disease Control (CDC) documents.

‘The risk of Myocarditis (Heart Inflammation) in Children due to the Pfizer Vaccine’

Myocarditis is inflammation of the heart muscle, whilst Pericarditis is inflammation of the protective sacs surrounding the heart. Both are serious conditions due to the fact the heart muscle cannot regenerate, and both conditions have officially been added to the safety labels of the Pfizer jab and Moderna jab by the MHRA (see here).

Myocarditis and pericarditis happen very rarely in the general (unvaccinated) population, and it is estimated that in the UK there are about 6 new cases of myocarditis per 100,000 patients per year and about 10 new cases of pericarditis per 100,000 patients per year.

The MHRA has undertaken a thorough review of both UK and international reports of myocarditis and pericarditis following vaccination against Covid-19 due to a recent increase in reporting of these events in particular with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, with a consistent pattern of cases occurring more frequently in young males.

A Scientific Study published on the JAMA network, has also found that the incidence of myocarditis among vaccinated individuals is at least double what Health Authorities are claiming.

Fight!

13 reasons why 5 to 11-year-old Children should not be given the Covid-19 Vaccine (Daily Exposé)

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