Last year, we attended a CHOC webinar for “How to speak to parents who are Covid-19 vaccine-hesitant.”
Back in November 2021, there were no studies on the long term effects for serious adverse reactions from the Covid-19 vaccine. How can a doctor tell parents to not be hesitant when the studies have not come out?
Here is what one Doctor said….
This is with every single vaccine. I tell parents about side effects of every vaccine. What's important is that the very, very rare side effects, like myocarditis and things like that, these are like one in tens and tens of thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people even. I don't really go into those unless they ask about it.
But I do tell families about the normal side effects that they can expect and that way that prevents you from getting a call tomorrow saying, I think my kid's allergic because they got a sore arm or they got feverish the next day.
What does the Hippocratic oath say?
I swear to fulfill, to the best of my ability and judgment, this covenant: I will respect the hard-won scientific gains of those physicians in whose steps I walk, and gladly share such knowledge as is mine with those who are to follow.
Who was that doctor?
Dr. Ball is board certified in pediatrics and is a member of the CHOC Primary Care Network who treats kids and teens in Orange County.
Why is he wrong?
Recent Studies show among males ages 16 to 19 years, approximately 1 in 15,000 developed myocarditis after a booster dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. Between Dec. 14, 2020, and Sept. 16, 2022, 23,926 cases of myocarditis and pericarditis were reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, or VAERS, with 18,186 cases attributed to Pfizer, 5,304 cases to Moderna and 410 cases to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
In the meantime….hospitals try to normalize myocarditis in children. NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital in early September published the 30-second ad, which promoted the medical center’s pediatric services for treating the condition.
The ad has since been pulled due to backlash in normalizing myocarditis in children.
It is our duty as a parents to always be informed and ask questions….
and we DO have a few questions to for Dr. Ball.
After an entire year since this webinar, does Dr. Ball still hide information from his patients/ patient’s parents? Has the new data changed his mind about recommending the Covid-19 vaccine for kids?
Why don’t you ask him yourself?