Phil Murphy says he’s masking toddlers because it’s for their safety.
“We know there are already many child care providers who are doing their utmost to protect the children in their care, their employees, and their communities – and we thank them,” Murphy said in a Monday press release announcing his daycare executive order.. “This order ensures that everyone is abiding by the same strong standards to protect those who are not yet eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations, so that we can continue to offer safe, in-person learning environments for children of all ages.”
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Frankly, that’s a giant crock of bullshit, Save Jerseyans.
The American Academy of Pediatrics pegged hospitalizations for children somewhere between 0.1%-2.0% of all COVID-19 cases, but it’s worth noting that hospitalizations don’t mean “very sick” or dying in all or even many cases. All hospitals test for COVID-19; some of those kids are there for completely unrelated things, while others presented for mild or moderate cases manifesting minor symptoms. So it’s safe to assume kids actually hospitalized FOR COVID-19 probably come in at somewhere < 1% of all positive cases.
Pediatric COVID-19 deaths are even more rare. A recent U.K. study pegged a child’s probability of dying from COVID-19 at 2 in 1,000,000. Again, how many of these deaths (25 out of 12 million kiddos logged between March 2020 and February 2021) are deaths FROM COVID-19 as opposed with “with” Covid is unclear.
Let’s accept the 1 in 500,000 number for the sake of discussion.
Your odds of being stuck by lightning?
Around 1 in 500,000 per the CDC. But…
“The U.S. Weather Service places a person’s odds of being struck by lighting in a given year at 1 in 1,222,000 people, based on population,” according to the website Stacker. “That probability climbs significantly when we look at the odds of being struck by lightning in your lifetime—1 in 15,300—averaging that lifetime to be 80 years. Stunningly, the odds of you being affected by someone you know being struck by lighting, based on 10 people affected for every person struck, are 1 in 1,530.”
Now, there are those who fairly point out that we don’t know the long-term risk of COVID-19 on a child’s body. That’s true, but the same came be said of the vaccines that are still being studied. By the way: 5 folks out of every million have an allergic reaction to COVID-19 vaccination. Rare, you bet, but technically LESS rare than a child dying of COVID-19. A benefits vs. risks analysis errs in favor of not making young children who face profound developmental challenges from not being able to interact properly with family, caregivers, friends, and teachers.
All of this adds up to the following: making young children – especially those without preexisting conditions – is statistically pointless. If you’ve been going along with this nonsense? Knock it off.
Or at least be consistent and start advocating for the placement of lightning rods on pack ‘n plays?
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