Nurse opposes mandating covid shots for school-entry in letter to Washington State Board of Health
Where there is risk, there must be equity and choice
Dear Board of Health,
Thank you for your careful consideration of the question, “Should covid19 vaccines be required for school entry?” I have also carefully considered all the evidence and viewed the TAG presentations. As a registered nurse specializing in maternal-child health, with graduate studies in research design, statistics, public policy, and epidemiology, I oppose adding covid19 shots to the school-entry requirements, for all ages.
If this shot is added to the school schedule, then my family, my extended family, my neighbors, and all of my church community are prepared to immediately withdraw our children from private and public schools and move to homeschooling for the 2022-2023 school year.
Parents would not give a 2015 flu shot to their children in 2023, and they will not accept a 2020 covid19 shot that is proving to be ineffective against 2022-2023 variants. This shot is not acceptable to the public due to limited or negative effectiveness against evolving covid19 variants in current or future real-world conditions plus short-term, waning immunity that requires an unknown number of shots and annual boosters.
My family has consulted our medical doctor, who has advised us that the risk-benefit analysis of covid19 shots for children under 18 favors not vaccinating and not making this a school-entry requirement. Families that want to choose vaccination have already done so and may make this choice as a family decision, without a school mandate. If covid19 shots are required for school entry, it will likely result in decreased public trust, fewer covid19 vaccinations and a massive rising tide of homeschooling families. Allow parents and families to make their individual choice, not mandates, to regain trust.
We must consider post-marketing, real-world data in the risk-benefit analysis of requiring covid-19 shots for school entry. A careful review of the TAG presentations (many of which were based mainly on Delta variant, 2020-2021 data, and adults-only studies) showed missing information. Information must be considered about children’s unique immune systems, natural immunity, current and evolving variants, real-world effectiveness, long-term safety studies, possible harms to fertility or reproduction, studies of vaccine reactogenicity in children already recovered from covid19, age-risk stratification, 2022 extremely low risk of covid19 for school children, and high community and school rates of covid-recovered contributing to robust herd immunity. Covid illness is mild and short-term for almost 100% of children. Parents are worried about the unknown risks from these novel, EUA mRNA shots in the long-term: on their children, grand-children, great-grandchildren, and the next seven generations.
The public outcry and outrage against adding this shot to the school schedule of immunizations is based on lack of trust in the BOH and DOH, the low risk of covid to children, the high risk of known and unknown adverse effects, long-lasting natural immunity, short-term waning immunity and lack of effectiveness in current or future real-world conditions. World-wide, we are seeing that unvaccinated countries like Africa have the lowest rates of covid-19, and that the most vaccinated countries like Seychelles, Israel, and the UAE have sky-rocketing covid-19 rates. Parents are looking at this data and worrying that the shots increase, not decrease, the risk of covid19 transmission and the risks of altered innate immunity in ways that do more harm than good.
Parents are considering the March 1, 2022, release of post-marketing data from Pfizer. Here we see a 3% risk of fatality after vaccination, (n=1223 ) and a 27% risk of having adverse events without full recovery (n=11361) out of 42,086 cases. When you apply a risk /benefit analysis, with a nearly 100% recovery rate from covid19, then outcome shows that the risks of covid19 shots are unacceptable for mass inoculation of children. See screenshot, below. Parents are well aware of the criminal history of Pfizer and lack trust in the safety and effectiveness of products made by Pfizer for their children.
The known and unknown risks of this novel injectable therapy are unacceptably high, and the benefits to children are low. Therefore, this shot does not meet the nine criteria for adding a vaccine to the school schedule for any age child. Importantly, it is not acceptable to the public and will result in further school enrollment attrition.
We must not resort to the doomed strategy of mandates-with-exemptions if we want to restore public trust in immunizations and restore public enrollment in schools. Families have zero trust in the immunization exemption process. We have seen precedents in our state, (such as the MMR in 2019) and other states, for removal of exemptions and increased difficulty in obtaining exemptions with form revisions. The exemption process is burdensome and troubled by lack of equity in accessing exemptions. Where there is risk, there must be equity and choice.
I look forward to listening to the Board’s comments on March 9 on this issue. I urge you to vote NO covid19 shots be required, for any age, for school entry.
Respectfully,
a nurse who had dedicated her career to maternal and child health
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Nurse opposes mandating covid shots for school-entry in letter to Washington State Board of Health
This was so well written! Thank you!
Fantastic post!