Toronto Public Health has announced its intent to move forward with the vaccination of children as young as five, with the plan to issue proof of vaccination after that.
According to a Monday news release, the city’s health service has formed a “COVID-19 Vaccination Planning Group” composed of health partners, school boards, community representatives, and the Ontario Ministry of Health.
“Vaccines are our best protection against COVID-19 and the Delta variant. Toronto Public Health is proactively working hard in preparation for the time when vaccines are approved for children ages 5 to 11. Whenever vaccines are approved for use, Team Toronto will be ready to provide vaccines to our kids quickly, easily, and equitably,” Councillor Joe Cressy, Chair of Toronto’s Board of Health, said in a statement.
There are roughly 200,000 children in this age group which the municipal government hopes to reach.
Toronto Public Health says that its goal is to “help reduce the number of COVID-19 cases in our community and allow children to participate in activities that benefit their health and well-being.”
However, whether the vaccine itself is necessary for health and well-being is not noted by the city — they merely point to figures regarding the hospitalization of adults.
“We continue to do everything we can as a City government to fight COVID-19 and save lives,” said Mayor John Tory. “Toronto Public Health has formed this Vaccination Planning Group so that our city will be ready to help children get vaccinated as quickly as possible following the necessary approvals from Health Canada. This will help keep our kids safe and provide greater protection in our schools and communities across the city.”
According to a study from the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines carry an estimated one in 1,000 risk of heart inflammation, also called myocarditis.
The researchers later retracted this research, but not before it went viral and scarred public health officials.
The researchers now claim they used the wrong denominator in their initial calculation — because professionals apparently struggle with basic arithmetic — and they say the actual figure is closer to one in 25,000.
Regardless, this risk is significantly higher than the risk children face from COVID-19.
According to Public Health Ontario’s own data, there were two deaths attributed to COVID-19 in children under 14 between January 15, 2020, to June 30, 2021, in the entire province. Additionally, the researchers do not specify whether the two deaths included those with comorbidities.
Even if these deaths only occurred in the city of Toronto rather than the entire province, this would still make the risk from a severe adverse reaction to the vaccine four times higher than the risk of dying from COVID-19 in this age group — and that is after the University of Ottawa Heart Institute changed their data to make the vaccine appear twenty-five times safer and without considering comorbidities which may have played a factor in the two COVID deaths.
Nonetheless, the city says they are currently waiting for vaccine approval from Health Canada before barreling forward with their plans.
