A Letter to Blaine Higgs - Premier of New Brunswick
Dear Honorable Blaine Higgs,
This weekend I spent hours consoling my 12-year-old daughter over the repercussions of your proposed vaccine passport measures to be enacted this up-coming Wednesday in NB. Effective Wednesday, she will currently be unable to do the things that have helped to keep our children sane, through this pandemic. As a parent, as of writing this we have chosen to not vaccinate our daughter based on 2 premises:
Premise 1 - She is not at any significant risk with Covid19 based on all current data and her overall health status. This assessment comes from the following:
As of the most recent official Covid-19 daily epidemiological summary dated sept 17th, 2021 (COVID-19 daily epidemiology update - Canada.ca) Since the beginning of the pandemic, in the 0-19 age group there has been:
1,617 total hospitalizations resulting in 183 admitted to ICU and 15 deaths related to Covid.
Considering that there are approximately 8,139,512 individuals (21% of the total population) in Canada in that age group this would determine:
An overall .525% Hospitalization Rate
An overall .00487% Death Rate
To put it in perspective in 2019 there were 29 Influenza and pneumonia [J09-J18] related deaths in this age group.
My daughter is healthy with no underlying health conditions and a healthy BMI.
Why the health status is important as it is clearly understood that underlying health conditions completely drive risk with Covid19. An example of this is outlined in the following Stats Canada "Coivd19: A Data Perspective" article. COVID-19 death comorbidities in Canada (statcan.gc.ca)
To quote: "Healthy young adults, adolescents and children who contracted the virus have been the least likely to develop severe complications from COVID-19, including death. In fact, 100% of the COVID-involved deaths of Canadians under the age of 45 as of July 31 had at least one other disease or condition certified on the medical certificate of death. The proportion of those with at least one other disease or condition decreases with age, ranging from 93% for those aged 45 to 64 to 89% for those aged 85 years or older."
Premise 2 - There is currently not enough data to properly establish her overall risks from taking the vaccine. This comes from the following assessment:
Due to the nature and compressed timelines of vaccine development, we are still discovering and learning about both the efficacy and risks of the vaccines. Initially, the data was very positive but there have been items discovered that bring some serious questions, especially when considering the almost non-existent risk Covid presents to our children. (Benefits vs. Risks) This is easily presented in the timelines around the discovery of both blood clots (AZ) and Myocarditis (Pfizer) as both were not initially discovered in both the Phase 1/2 trials.
If we look at this age group, Myocarditis is a very serious adverse reaction and although it appears mild, we do not know if there are any long-term implications. In a latest pre-print "mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Development of CMR-confirmed Myopericarditis" in the Medical Journal (medRxiv) mRNA COVID-19 Vaccination and Development of CMR-confirmed Myopericarditis | medRxiv
To quote: "Incidence of myopericarditis overall was approximately 10 cases for every 10,000 inoculations" and "Symptoms settled quickly with standard therapy and patients were discharged within a few days. No major adverse cardiac events and no significant arrythmias were noted during inpatient stay. Further follow up will be required to ascertain the longer-term outcomes of this patient group"
For me as a parent, a risk of 10 in a 100,000 is concerning especially if you consider that we really have yet to discover what if any long-term effects will come from this. BTW, the NIH in the US defines Heart Inflammation as "You may have different signs and symptoms depending on the type and severity of the heart inflammation that you have. The treatment your doctor recommends may depend on whether you are diagnosed with inflammation of the lining of your heart or valves, the heart muscle, or the tissue surrounding the heart. You may be treated with medicine, procedures, or possibly surgery to treat your condition and its complications. Complications may include an arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, and heart failure." Heart Inflammation | NHLBI, NIH
If you were to compare a potential intervention risk of 10 per 100,000 against the known ICU admission rate of 2.25 per 100,000 or the death rate of .018 per 100,000, it does not paint a favorable risk/benefit equation for our children.
A very similar exercise was completed by the The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) in the UK who have come to a similar assessment, recommending vaccines in the 12-15 age groups only to those with serious underlying health conditions. Their decision can be viewed here: JCVI statement on COVID-19 vaccination of children aged 12 to 15 years: 3 September 2021 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The last consideration was around the ability of the vaccine to prevent transmission. The current Covid19 vaccines are non-sterilizing, which by scientific definition, are not well suited to prevent transmission. Building a benefit case to vaccinate our children to protect others does not appear to be a reasonable exercise considering the possible risks. Also, vaccinating those who are unvaccinated to protect the vaccinated is not based on any sound scientific or logical reasoning with a non-sterilizing vaccine.
This above assessment is a personal assessment that is based on the above factors. If our children were actually at risk, vaccination would make as it might for anyone who has serious health complications. I also fully support any parents right to make these decisions for their children, but a vaccine passport fully undermines these rights as a parent in New Brunswick and goes against the fabric of freedom in our society.
I have serious concerns that you and your government have lost your moral compass with items such as vaccine passports. Judging by what I see, I have no doubt you will be successful with your coercive measures as you essentially force parents to vaccinate their children. Public health should be about informed consent and never involve coercion.
I am not lawyer but as a citizen and ultimately a taxpayer, I am deeply concerned your measures open the door to our government taking on legal and financial risk now for things that should be a personal choice and responsibility. It is clear to me that your assessment of benefit vs. risk to effectively mandate these vaccines through coercion will most likely not stand a legal challenge. Furthermore, if a child becomes seriously harmed or dies as part of vaccination, I suspect you will be open to liability under these coercive measures. Also, your success in vaccination numbers after this passport announcement will simply serve as evidence of the effects of this coercion.
I am also concerned that you and your government have become myopic and lack balance with your approach to Covid19. Our children do not appear to be at risk for Covid and we should be treating that as a gift, not a creating burden for them. To date the most negatively measurable impacts health wise with our children has come from your mandated measures.
I am considering your automated response as an acknowledgement that you have received this information. I will also be following up with a signed copy of this sent to your office via courier as I intend to further document these issues and concerns.
Respectfully,