Thread by @FyezahJehan

With school vaccination becoming mandatory for 15 and above in Sind, there are pervasive vaccine myths galore. 🧵 google.com/amp/s/www.geo.…

First that children don’t need vaccine. On average 1/5 infected are children, & 1/3 of those are asymptomatic & potential spreaders. So even if children are less likely to be sick, many will indirectly benefit from their vaccination such as younger kids, immunodeficiency etc.

Of course there are direct benefits to children as well, as vaccine will reduce the chance an individual child gets Covid-19, decreasing disruption caused by school closures.

Also, not all children are immune to the virus. In high mortality countries like Pakistan, every child death counts. In Pakistan with poor registration, we think the numbers are grossly underreported. google.com/amp/s/www.then…

For example, in a sentinel surveillance of children’s hospitals and wards conducted by @Qalb2Abbas and colleagues, the death rates are high. This data is predelta, but delta has been bad elsewhere for children google.com.pk/amp/s/www.alja…

Another myth is regarding the vaccines not being safe and causing harm. Common side effects such as pain at injection site, tiredness, headache, muscle or joint pain, and fever and chills are also are usually transient (<48 hours)

Of the millions of doses of #COVID-19 vaccine given, a few hundred cases of myocarsitis and pericardium have been reported, so are rare. Almost all are mild and resolve quickly. In contrast, MISC caused post-Covid in adolescents is much more severe cdc.gov/mis/index.html

Some parents are worried about long-term side effects. I see unrelated pics of thalidomide toxicity on SM wrongly attributed to vaccination.Truth is vaccines are awesome for kids, decreasing death & disability from measles, polio, smallpox etc. Why would Covid19💉 be different?

Another myth is that the vaccines have been rolled out without adequate research. However upto 6 months of safety data has been presented to EUA agencies and several trials are on way to publication. nejm.org/doi/full/10.10…

Finally, issue of parental right 2 refuse vaccine. One can weigh presumed individual benefit of not vaccinating with the risks of lockdowns, filled up hospitals & drained resources, death & emergence of variants & see that refusing 💉 is a 0 sum game. 🧵 end.