Can Starving Babies Drink Vaccines?

The FDA's Priorities

“US about to become the first country on earth to give mRNA vaccines to its youngest children. The first.” So brags the White House this weekend, after the FDA authorized both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for children ages 6 months and up.

Do these vaccines work to prevent hospitalization and death in children? Let’s ask Dr. Fauci! “Right now, there's not enough data that has been accumulated.” Oh. And that’s for children over age 5. For children under 5, who are at even less of a risk than already low-risk older children? To paraphrase our nation’s leading scientist, there is a definite data-accumulation shortage. Probably something to do with the supply chain.

Ok, so we don’t know if they work in any way that matters. But if the FDA approved them, they must be safe! Right? I mean, this is the same agency that tells you not to eat cookie dough, won’t let your baby near certain brands of Easter eggs, and works day and night to protect America from the dangers of European baby formula; these people don’t mess around with safety. Well, the Moderna vaccine they just approved for 6 month olds remains banned in many parts of Europe for those under 30. To clarify, not 30 months. 30 years. So a graduate student in Sweden can’t get this vaccine because of concerns over myocarditis, but the FDA just approved it for your infant.

All right, so it may not be totally safe, and it may not, you know, work. But maybe one day a new Covid variant will emerge that truly is far more dangerous to little ones - maybe getting your babies vaccinated now will prevent anything bad happening during future Covid outbreaks? For those who like to follow science, the latest science published in a journal with the rather on-the-nose sciencey name Science shows that adults vaccinated with the mRNA Covid vaccines were less likely to have a good immune response to new variants. It seems the vaccine primes you to fight last year’s model, not the new, up-and-coming editions. In science speak, “Previously infection-naïve [triple mRNA vaccinated] H[ealth]C[are]W[orkers] who became infected during the B.1.1.529 [Omicron] wave showed enhanced immunity against earlier variants, but reduced nAb potency and T cell responses against B.1.1.529 [Omicron] itself.”

To recap: unclear need for early childhood vaccination in the first place, unknown safety, as-yet-unaccumulated present day data against hospitalization and death, unknown but possibly counterproductive efficacy against future actually dangerous variants. Sounds like a keeper!

On the bright side, while it is unlikely any 6 month olds will be in any way medically helped by the FDA’s latest decision, there is one definite effect the announcement will have: now all sorts of companies, parks, theaters, museums, and, yes, doctor’s offices will have the FDA on their side when they ban your nine month old from the premises for being unvaccinated against Covid.

Congratulations, America - first in the world to do this to our babies! USA! USA! Just like Tom Cruise in the latest Top Gun, the government will not rest, will shatter any bureaucratic barrier, will enter the danger zone, if it means protecting our kids. At least, from diseases that don’t endanger them. Not from mundane threats like, you know, hunger. Admittedly, the formula shortage has not been the government’s top priority. So it didn’t make it into the priority binder. But don’t worry, America; if our babies can’t eat formula, we can always let them eat cake mRNA.