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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

15yr old girl died of covid

311 replies

Louiselady500 · 02/10/2021 22:22

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-58772671

Will this make people reconsider allowing their teenagers to have the vaccine.
Yes or No?

It’s made me think a lot about it even though my child isn’t old enough to be vaccinated yet. If the times comes I think I will be much more convinced than I maybe was before.

OP posts:
SamoSamo · 03/10/2021 00:01

I feel so dejected now. I want to scream.

This thing is too much. FFS.

Beautiful girl, gorgeous. I'm angry.

TableFlowerss · 03/10/2021 00:02

@PhillMcCann

It's incredibly sad. But no, it won't make me change my mind.

Does reading about someone who died due to the vaccine make people decide not to be jabbed?

I know a woman whose two year old died of chickenpox. Fucking chickenpox. But I didn't rush out to vaccinate my dc against it, and most parents don't.

This. It’s absolutely heartbreaking that children die of things that wouldn’t affect 999,999 of other children. Chicken pox is such an example. Children will tragically die of complications but it’s statistically so rare.
EasterIssland · 03/10/2021 00:03

I felt sorry for the family but this has reminded me to a few weeks ago when the “vaccine targeted group” were the pregnant women. Everywhere news about how women were suffering because of not having the vaccine a s dying.

Overall I look at the greater number. How many kids have died since the pandemic started. How many didn’t have any health complications. Last time it was around 30 and 1/2 didn’t have health so around 15. Some kids will die ? Yes. Would I ask my child to have the vaccine because of this girls death ? No.

BoredZelda · 03/10/2021 00:05

People are dying from it with and without having had vaccs. Make the decision for you and yours.

But by far, more people are dying without it than with it. Would you advise not wearing a seatbelt because people still die wearing them?

LegArmpits · 03/10/2021 00:06

Pro vaccine will only ever take note of things that fit their agenda.
Anti vaccine will only ever take note of things that fit their agenda.
Neither are absolutely right. It's ok to question things. That is, after all, the basis of science.
But not all things are as they seem.

Takingabreakagain · 03/10/2021 00:07

@EasterIssland
You're right! Each time the targeted age group for vaccines comes around the tragic stories in the news seem to be about those groups who weren't jabbed. It's very manipulative and plays on people's fear

LegArmpits · 03/10/2021 00:07

@EasterIssland Yes I agree.

Covidworries · 03/10/2021 00:08

86 Uk children have dies of covid so far. 1000s are suffering from long covid.

Its all very well saying 1000s have just had mild symptoms if your child is one of the lucky ones but have some compassion for the families that have not been so lucky.

Have some comprehension that no one can predict how their child could be impacted by covid.

walksen · 03/10/2021 00:12

People need to keep some perspective on the situation and shouldn't panic over this. "We still do not know what the long term impacts of the vaccine are and how it will affect young people"

Well we don't know the long term effects of the virus either but people seem ok about letting their child take this risk. In the short term, the virus has killed more children than the vaccine. I doubt the fact that some children die of flu, or crossing the road is any consolation to this poor girl's parents.

BoredZelda · 03/10/2021 00:17

Children will tragically die of complications but it’s statistically so rare.

This argument always baffles me. If that statistic is your child, would you be comforted that their death was statistically rare, when there was something you could have done to reduce even that minor risk?

Surely you would look at the risk of your child dying from Covid v the risk of your child dying from the vaccine. More children have died from Covid in England, than have died from the vaccine worldwide.

I was first faced with the “statistically” argument when it came to chicken pox. Would I deliberately try and expose my daughter to chicken pox to get it over with at a time that suited me, and when she was young enough, or would I try to protect her. She eventually caught it at nursery when she was 3 and she was really, really ill with it, resulting in a hospital stay. If I had done that to her I would have felt incredibly bad no matter how statistically low the chances of that happening were. As it was, I discovered later we could have had her vaccinated privately and I felt like a failure as a mother because I didn’t know that was possible.

Mamanyt · 03/10/2021 00:17

Children are dropping like flies here in the USA, and parents are still literally RIOTING to keep their children from wearing masks in school, much less getting the jab. I do not know what they are thinking. If my sons were still children, I'd be screaming for them to be vaccinated.

BootsScootsAndToots · 03/10/2021 00:17

I know a woman whose two year old died of chickenpox. Fucking chickenpox. But I didn't rush out to vaccinate my dc against it, and most parents don't.

Well I don't understand why you wouldn't vaccinate against chickenpox. I paid for both my DC to receive it when we lived in the UK because the fact they don't offer it, doesn't mean you shouldn't take it.

It just means the NHS saves money.

AlexaShutUp · 03/10/2021 00:23

This argument always baffles me. If that statistic is your child, would you be comforted that their death was statistically rare, when there was something you could have done to reduce even that minor risk?

I'm reminded of the bit in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography where he talks about the death of his four year old son from smallpox and his bitter regret at having decided not to vaccinate him. Vaccine hesitancy is not new, and neither are the tragedies arising from it.

EasterIssland · 03/10/2021 00:23

@Covidworries

86 Uk children have dies of covid so far. 1000s are suffering from long covid.

Its all very well saying 1000s have just had mild symptoms if your child is one of the lucky ones but have some compassion for the families that have not been so lucky.

Have some comprehension that no one can predict how their child could be impacted by covid.

@covidworries Think everyone is sorry about the death of this girl. Isn’t that compassion?

I’ve had the vaccine. I volunteer in a vaccination centre. I work every day in something that helps the nhs delivering the vaccine. So I don’t consider myself antivax

However , my son is nearly 4. If the studies on his age is a group Of 2000 people like 5-12 then I won’t rush til I know full well that the vaccine is safe. He’s been 3-4 times with someone that has had the virus either he hasn’t caught it or if he has he was asymptotic. I can’t currently trust it with only 2k on the trials. How many have died because of az ? How many have had problems with their periods? Do we know how pfizer will affect those girls periods who are around 15? Do we know how long term those boys affected by Pfizer will be ?

We’ve always been told that kids don’t get so ill and that they weren’t so much carrying the virus … now suddenly we have to vaccinate them because many are dying or having long COVID ? Give us a bit of time to the parents to understand the big picture and the implications of our kids having this vaccine. I’m pretty sure many of our kids will end up having it sooner or later … but don’t tell us we’re not respecting those that have died because it’s not true

Whatever we do in life there is always going to be a risk , not only with COVID.

AlexaShutUp · 03/10/2021 00:24

I am just thankful that, in this very sad case, the child was clearly going to be vaccinated, so at least the poor family won't be reproaching themselves about that.

Mango101 · 03/10/2021 00:27

[quote Takingabreakagain]@PeachesPumpkin
It's put on the death certificate if they tested positive in the last 28 days. There can be more than one reason on the death certificate[/quote]
It has to contribute to death to be on the death certificate. eg wouldn't if died in car crash.

DeeCeeCherry · 03/10/2021 00:31

I hope a child's death isn't going to be used here to harangue and challenge and scaremonger people who've chosen not to have the vaccine. It's in very poor taste.

How sad that she lost her life. Im glad her parents were able to be with her to the end, well according to reports anyway.

Perspective, please.

Staffy1 · 03/10/2021 00:42

It’s so difficult to find information about this that isn’t conflicting. Does covid cause more cases of myocarditis in children than the vaccine? If so, why is there so much made of the fact that the vaccine causes it in this age group? When it’s mentioned as a side effect of the vaccine it’s always described as “very rare”, but depending on which source you believe, it’s as high as 1 in 6000 in boys aged 12-15 after the second vaccine. That’s not what I would call very rare. After the first vaccine it’s more like 1 in 83000 which I would feel more comfortable describing as “very rare”. Try as I might I can’t find anything much on how often it occurs as a result of covid in this age group except for one lone article that says it’s 6 times higher than after the vaccine. I really would like to know as after agonising over it my son has had his first vaccine, but I still don’t know if it’s likely to be safer for him to have the second or not. (Not that you could ever be sure, but comparable statistics would help with the decision). (He can have a second vaccine as he has special needs whereas most others in this age group aren’t being offered a second jab anyway).

TableFlowerss · 03/10/2021 00:47

@BoredZelda

Children will tragically die of complications but it’s statistically so rare.

This argument always baffles me. If that statistic is your child, would you be comforted that their death was statistically rare, when there was something you could have done to reduce even that minor risk?

Surely you would look at the risk of your child dying from Covid v the risk of your child dying from the vaccine. More children have died from Covid in England, than have died from the vaccine worldwide.

I was first faced with the “statistically” argument when it came to chicken pox. Would I deliberately try and expose my daughter to chicken pox to get it over with at a time that suited me, and when she was young enough, or would I try to protect her. She eventually caught it at nursery when she was 3 and she was really, really ill with it, resulting in a hospital stay. If I had done that to her I would have felt incredibly bad no matter how statistically low the chances of that happening were. As it was, I discovered later we could have had her vaccinated privately and I felt like a failure as a mother because I didn’t know that was possible.

It shouldn’t baffle you, because until a few weeks ago, it wasn’t deemed appropriate to give children a vaccine that was ultimately not to protect them.

Do you honestly think that if it affected everyone of every age, the same same way as it affects children, that there would be a vaccine??!! There absolutely wouldn’t. Covid wouldn’t be a word we would even know.

As it’s been pointed out already, any child could die of any virus, flu, chicken pox etc but we don’t rush out to vaccinated because it doesn’t affect that vast majority of people.

So let’s not pretend that vaccine is to protect children, it’s to protect the wider society, particularly the vulnerable!

If people are happy to be vaccinated then good for them, but some people would prefer to take caution.

Using your example about regret, a child could have a allergic reaction to a vaccine (not necessarily a covid vaccine - it could be a flu one) and die. So surely the same argument you used, but for the opposite scenario, when the parents regretted it.

To add, both my children have had covid and we’re absolutely fine. One was asymptomatic.

I’m pleased they’ve got a vaccine and I’m pleased children are allowed it now. If parents feel better for giving their child it then great, but thankfully parents are allowed to weigh up the pros and cons and done decide they want to wait and see and there’s nothing wrong with that approach under the circumstances, given the chance of dying from covid is about 1 in a million. Another reason it’s taken this long to be offered because it was questioned morally………

OrganicBagel · 03/10/2021 00:51

I don’t say this from an anti vax stance, but rather from a data analysis point of view. I recently looked at ONS figures for deaths in the 15-19 age group in 2021 compared with the 5-year average from 2015-2019. In the 12 weeks prior to rollout of the vaccine to vulnerable children (and I think possibly also the 16-18 age group at the same time) there were slightly fewer deaths than the average over those 5 years. In the 12 weeks after the rollout began there was a 21% increase in deaths compared to the 5-year-average! I removed the number of covid-related deaths in that age group during that time (nine) and the increase was still around 16%. I checked the deaths in the younger age groups that weren’t yet vaxxed at that time (as far as I am aware) and in the 10-14 group and 5-9 age group the were around 12.5% fewer deaths than average. In real terms it was 35 (15-19 age group) deaths more than the average over the 12 week period compared with 8 fewer deaths in the younger age groups over the same period. I shall be watching the statistics with interest over the coming weeks as the rollout in schools has taken off. If these excess deaths or due to the vaccines then that will become very apparent when the 10-14 age group suddenly sees a huge increase in deaths having been less than average over the whole year so far.

TableFlowerss · 03/10/2021 00:53

@AlexaShutUp

This argument always baffles me. If that statistic is your child, would you be comforted that their death was statistically rare, when there was something you could have done to reduce even that minor risk?

I'm reminded of the bit in Benjamin Franklin's autobiography where he talks about the death of his four year old son from smallpox and his bitter regret at having decided not to vaccinate him. Vaccine hesitancy is not new, and neither are the tragedies arising from it.

I don’t think you can compare this to small pox…
LeaveHomeNow · 03/10/2021 01:02

I heard there is some damning stats coming out about the vaccine and myocarditis and young people. I judge no one but am waiting for more info.

TableFlowerss · 03/10/2021 01:05

@LeaveHomeNow

I heard there is some damning stats coming out about the vaccine and myocarditis and young people. I judge no one but am waiting for more info.
Exactly. People should be free to chose. People shouldn’t be passing judgment as if they’re somehow morally superior because they’re getting their child vaccinated Hmm
Covidworries · 03/10/2021 01:06

There is freedom to choose through. Vaccine isnt compulsory

TableFlowerss · 03/10/2021 01:06

When I say exactly, I’m referring to the waiting for more info. I’ve not heard any negative reports about vaccines I must say.