False: More children will be seriously injured or killed by COVID-19 vaccines than by COVID-19.

By: Umme Kulsum
January 4 2022

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There is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines can make children seriously ill or cause death. The statement by Vernon Coleman is false.In a video published by a conspiracy-pseudoscience website, the Daily Expose, conspiracy theorist Vernon Coleman claimed that "More children will be seriously injured or killed by the vaccination than the COVID-19 infection itself." This is incorrect. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended everyone above 12 years get vaccinated against COVID-19. So far, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has given emergency authorization only to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for young people aged 12 to 15. The FDA has also approved this vaccine, now called Comirnaty, to prevent COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older. Experts at Johns Hopkins have stated that the vaccine helps prevent kids from getting COVID-19. Though COVID-19 in children is sometimes milder, they might get severe lung infections and require hospitalization due to COVID-19. Moreover, vaccines go through rigorous testing and are monitored carefully. CDC-FDA reviews all the available clinical trial data before deciding to authorize vaccination among different age groups. Many have claimed that the COVID-19 vaccine causes heart problems in children. However, these cases are very rare, mild, and resolves quickly. The potential benefits of COVID-19 vaccination outweigh the potential risks including myocarditis or pericarditis, as the CDC has reported. Meanwhile, side effects in children after COVID-19 vaccination are similar to those experienced by people age 16 and older and typically last 1-3 days. According to an analysis by the FDA, the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine effectively prevents COVID-19 in children. Furthermore, "the immune response of adolescents was non-inferior to (at least as good as) the immune response of the older participants." There is no evidence that children suffer more from COVID-19 vaccines than from COVID-19, as claimed by Vernon Coleman. In fact, vaccines are proven effective in preventing disease in children, and the immune response was stronger in people 12–15 years old than people age 16 and older. The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19, including symptoms, prevention, and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organization or your national healthcare authority.