CDC yet to determine whether coronavirus vaccines are safe for kids, pregnant women by: Arsenio Toledo for Natural News
Scientists and officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), along with White House health officials, said that they could find out whether the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines are safe and effective for pregnant women and children under the age of 12 by the end of the year.
According to Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director at the CDC, the agency is expecting data from several trials testing the COVID-19 vaccines on pregnant women by summer. The data regarding vaccine testing on children as young as six months old can be released by the end of the year. With the complete data, the CDC will be able to make vaccination recommendations for expectant mothers and kids at least as young as nine.
Schuchat added that the CDC had already received preliminary trial data on women who had received the coronavirus vaccine in their third trimester. She described the data as “reassuring.”
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The principal deputy director made these statements during a hearing with the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Wednesday, May 19 regarding the CDC’s annual budget.
CDC wants pregnant women to get vaccinated immediately
During the hearing, Schuchat emphasized how important it was for pregnant women to get vaccinated against COVID-19 immediately. She claimed that women who are pregnant and get COVID-19 experience a worse version of the infection than non-pregnant women.
“More time in the intensive care unit, more risk of severe outcomes including those rare deaths,” said Schuchat. “COVID also complicates pregnancy by increasing the risk of prematurity and leading to other types of complications.”
Schuchat added that, while the CDC was still procuring its own data, it has found other research claiming that vaccinated mothers can transfer the coronavirus antibodies the vaccines supposedly generate to their babies while they are breastfeeding.
This claim was repeated by Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. During the hearing, Fauci said that the baby would be able to get the coronavirus antibodies through the placenta during its last few months in the mother’s womb. He added that this would supposedly improve the immunity of babies.
The CDC’s current stance on whether pregnant women should get the coronavirus vaccine is that they can get it if they want it. The agency has so far stopped short of officially recommending the vaccines because the CDC requires supposedly solid research regarding the vaccines’ long-term effects before it can make a recommendation. But the CDC has also not done anything to discourage pregnant women from getting vaccinated.
The only available data that the CDC has regarding the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women are studies on animals who have received either the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. The CDC reportedly found no safety concerns for pregnant animals or their babies.
Coronavirus vaccines already being administered to kids aged 12 and up
The goal of officials like Schuchat and Fauci is to expand vaccine eligibility to as many Americans as possible and to get everybody in the country vaccinated quickly. This is why COVID-19 vaccine eligibility has been expanded to children between 12- and 15-years-old.
On May 10, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15. This approval was followed by the CDC, who voted on Wednesday to recommend the Pfizer vaccine for this age group.
Both the FDA and the CDC were spurred on to allow vaccinations for 12- to 15-year-olds after they were allegedly presented with evidence from Pfizer that showed the coronavirus vaccine was 100 percent effective for that age group.
As of Tuesday, May 18, just one week after the FDA and the CDC officially allowed the COVID-19 vaccine to be administered to kids, the latter agency announced that as many as 600,000 kids ages 12 to 15 had already received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
“Last week the FDA authorized and the CDC recommended use of the Pfizer vaccine for adolescents,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, in a statement. “In less than one week, we have vaccinated more than 600,000 12- to 15-year-olds, and in total, more than 4.1 million adolescents aged 12 to 17 have been vaccinated so far. My own son was one of them.”
Walensky told senators during the hearing with Fauci and Schuchat that the agency is currently overseeing clinical trials that are meant to determine the supposed safety of the COVID-19 vaccines for even younger age groups.
But without even seeing the data, Walensky said that she expects children under 12 to be eligible for coronavirus vaccinations by the end of 2021 or the first quarter of 2022, at the latest. In her statement to the senators in the hearing, she said:
“Vaccines are coming for youth. They’re doing dose de-escalation studies now down to nine years old, soon thereafter down to six, then down to three, then down to six months … hoping to have more [data] by late fall and end of the year.”
Fauci himself predicted that nearly all children in the U.S. will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccines by the first quarter of next year.
Walensky said that the country hit a landmark in its mass vaccination efforts when on Monday, May 17, more than 60 percent of the adult population had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. She said the country needed to continue its effort to force people to get vaccinated to ensure that vaccine coverage in the country is widespread and uniform.
The CDC director added that, by her agency’s estimates, more than 274 million coronavirus vaccine doses had already been administered in the U.S.
The White House’s goal is to get 70 percent of all adult Americans vaccinated by July 4, and around 70 to 85 percent of the total population vaccinated. This is the goal supposed health experts said is necessary for the U.S. to achieve herd immunity.
“If you haven’t yet been vaccinated, perhaps you will consider being our reason to celebrate one more,” said Walensky.
