COVID-19 panic porn needs to end

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

The mainstream media and the Biden White House are doing their best to scare the American public and politicians into another COVID-19 shutdown, possibly even mandating that vaccinated Americans wear masks to stop the spread of the delta variant. 

President Biden advocated in a CNN town hall last night, all children under age 12, including preschoolers, should wear a mask in school. A caucus within the powerful United Federation of Teachers has begun collecting stories from educators concerned about returning to the classroom in September in the hopes of pursuing legal action.

This panic porn needs to stop â€" because none of it is supported by science â€" and if enacted, would have devastating impacts on our economy, our children’s education, and the mental health and well-being of millions of Americans. The U.S. has now reached the point where more people die from drug overdoses every day than COVID-19.

First, if you’re fully vaccinated, the chances of you dying or getting seriously ill from COVID-19 or any of its variants is effectively zero. Full stop. A new study from the U.K. found the Pfizer vaccine was 96% effective after two doses at preventing hospitalization from the delta variant. Studies from Canada and the U.K. show the vaccines prevent symptomatic infection, with the delta variant at 79% to 87%.

Moreover, Dr. Leslie Bienen, a public-health researcher at Oregon Health and Science University-Portland State University School of Public Health, and Dr. Monica Gandhi, an infectious-disease physician, and professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, analyzed Center for Disease and Prevention Control data and found a higher prevalence of the delta variant doesn’t translate into higher hospitalization rates, meaning it isn’t as dangerous as all of those doomsday reports would like you to believe.

If you are vaccinated, unvaccinated people pose no risk to you. They are taking the risk onto themselves â€" currently, 99% of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. are among the unvaccinated. It’s their body, their choice. 

Concerning children, the mortality risk from COVID-19 is lower than the seasonal flu, according to CDC’s own data. The risk of severe disease or hospitalization is about the same.

Only 335 American kids under the age of 18 have died from COVID-19. To put things in perspective, in 2019, more than 2,000 kids died in car crashes. About 1,000 a year die from drowning.

And, as Dr. Marty Makary points out in the Wall Street Journal, of those children who have died from COVID-19, it’s unclear if COVID-19 caused their death or if it involved a pre-existing medical condition because the CDC data doesn’t distinguish. In addition, with child COVID-19 hospitalization rates, it’s unclear whether they were admitted for COVID-19 or with COVID-19 â€" meaning a kid could’ve been in a bicycle accident getting treated for a broken arm and discovered they had COVID-19 after the hospital admitted a test â€" and was asymptomatic. 

Bottom line: For children, catching COVID-19 is about the same as catching the seasonal flu, with a less likelihood of dying from it.

Yet, teachers â€" who presumably have all received a COVID-19 vaccination because they were placed at the front of the line â€" don’t actually seem to be concerned about the children’s health. They are concerned about a kid’s ability to transmit the virus, however. This, too, is silly.

A study, published by Nature, was conducted among 900,000 in-school pupils in North Carolina last fall trying to measure transmission rates among the youth. Based on the study’s assumption, 900 people within the community would’ve been infected. It turned out only 32 were. A similar study in Nebraska found the same results. Among 20,000 Nebraska students attending full-time, in-person learning, only two COVID-19 cases emerged in the entire school year.

Now, the concern was the kids were going to infect the community. Transmission rates recorded were meager. And, as vaccination rates climb among the elderly and other at-risk populations, the transmission fear must too subside.

Again, if you are fully vaccinated, the chances of you dying or getting seriously ill from COVID-19 or any of its variants is effectively zero.

If you are unvaccinated, that’s your choice, and that’s your risk if you haven’t already contracted the virus and recovered from it. You can’t say you weren’t warned.

Everyone else needs to start living their lives and stop obsessing over the coronavirus and its inevitable variants. Burn the masks. Get the children back in school. Go on vacation. Watch a movie in the theater. Date. Eat out. Live freely.

The science supports it.

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