@Lostinacloud absolutely agree.
But I don't feel like you can ask questions without getting yourself a label.
And perhaps the scariest thing about it is people, friends, colleagues, my hairdresser - who I always thought were rational and sensible and logical and intelligent - seem to mostly fall somewhere on the spectrum of not caring in the slightest to full on agreement.
I had a colleague tell me the other day he wants mandatory vaccination. No more carrots and sticks, straight up criminalisation.
It's insane to me how things we wouldn't have dreamed possible two years ago are quickly becoming acceptable.
@illuyankas Why not? As parents, we can give our own children the full facts and evidence they need to make up their mind.
I'm still not understanding how we can do that when the JCVI acknowledges that there is considerable uncertainty regarding the magnitude of the potential harms.
For otherwise healthy children:
If a child chooses to take unknown risks regarding the magnitude of potential harms over known low risks of the disease... can we even call them competent or mature enough to make the decision?

And have long-term studies been done on wether it's actually better for children (with their hypothesised excellent naive T cell response) to have immunity through vaccination or immunity through infection? Not even just on a personal level (which should always be the most important) but on that society level people keep referring back to?
The strategy (which many experts disagree with) is now to vaccinate all during a pandemic regardless of risks of disease or even prior immunity. Some experts think this strategy could turn out to be a problem because a) the vaccines cannot eradicate the virus b) they cannot eliminate infection c) there are known side effects, and side effects which may not be known yet both for individuals but also for the course of the pandemic and finally d) the waning immunity over time which means… more vaccines.
But all of that is just to ask… what full facts and evidence are you planning to give your children? The experts? Which ones?
Studies? Which ones? People keep saying the internet virologists are the problem.
So we have parents giving children the “full facts and evidence they need to make up their minds”… could the parents also give that to the growing number of PhDs who can’t make up their minds, please?
Can the parents also provide a time machine so we can see what variants are around the corner and do another risk / benefit analysis of vaccinating children who have good natural immune responses to current variants with a vaccine based on the original Wuhan variant? They could also zoom to 2023 and pick up that Pfizer report too.
And when you’ve found the cold hard evidence please share it because trying to find actual studies and not just soundbites is... interesting. An example:
Scientists say that ADE is pretty much a non-issue with COVID-19 vaccines, but what are they basing this on?
What seems to be beyond doubt is that the vaccinated subjects, over and over, show up with no severe coronavirus cases and no hospitalizations. That is the opposite of what you would expect if ADE were happening," he wrote.
Beyond doubt? Where’s the figures for that, or is this anecdotal? And even with variants that haven’t even emerged yet? Consider me reassured, Mr Expert. 