Sarah Smith
for the Las Cruces Sun News
School districts all over the state are pushing students 12 years old and up to be vaccinated. Incentives are being offered to kids for being vaccinated. For instance, Albuquerque Public Schools recently said that they are planning events targeted at 16- and 17-year olds stressing that “the students need to sign up for the vaccine.”
Look at the data, from the May 24 New Mexico COVID-19 Pediatric Case Report:
- Total COVID-19 cases in Ages 0-17 = 29,404
- COVID-19 Hospitalizations in Age 0-17 = 192
- COVID-19 Deaths in Age 0-17 = 1
Based on these data, 99.4% of New Mexico pediatric COVID-19 cases did not result in hospitalization. New Mexico kids have a 99.997% survival rate from COVID-19.
It is clear that children have an extremely low risk of COVID-19. None of the COVID-19 injections have received full FDA approval, and they are authorized for emergency use only. All three COVID-19 injections include technology that has never previously been approved for use in vaccines (mRNA for Moderna and Pfizer, genetically-engineered adenovirus for J&J).
There have been no long-term safety tests on COVID-19 injections. That means that we do not know what will happen to people who receive these injections six months from now, a year from now, or longer.
Remember, the CDC said it was safe to reopen schools before vaccines were rolled out. Evidence from around the globe has shown this to be the case, even in countries that do not require masking, such as Sweden.
The current push toward vaccination of children is not based on risk to kids. They have had only a 0.6% hospitalization rate here in New Mexico, and a COVID-19 survival rate of 99.997%. Asymptomatic transmission has already been proven to be extremely rare, such that it should not be used to drive public policies.
If we are going to actually follow the science, it is clear that there is no justification for pushing COVID-19 vaccination of New Mexico children. The unknown long-term risks combined with children’s extremely low risk from this illness should make us all pause for careful consideration of the facts. Informed consent requires that people be made aware of potential risks and that they be free to make decisions without
New Mexico officials have no justification for pushing vaccination on school children, and this decision needs to rest securely in the hands of parents.
Sarah Smith has been a natural healthcare practitioner for eight years and is a former NASA aerospace engineer and scientist.
