Case 2:21-cv-00702-CLM Document 15 Filed 07/19/21 Page 35 of 67
B. The Under-18 Age Category In the United States, those younger than 18 years of age accounted for just 1.7% of all COVID-19 cases. 29 Essentially no severe cases of COVID-19 were observed in those aged 10 through 18 years. This group accounted for just 1% of reported cases, almost all of which were very mild. 30 A study recently published in the British Medical Journal concludes: “In contrast to other respiratory viruses, children have less severe symptoms when infected with the novel severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).” 31 Hospitalization due to COVID-19 is incredibly rare among youth, and overstated.
The American Academy of
Pediatrics 32 reported: …these studies underscore the importance of clearly distinguishing between children hospitalized with SARS-Co-V-2 found on universal testing versus those hospitalized for COVID-19 disease. Both demonstrate that reported hospitalization rates greatly overestimate the true burden of COVID-19 disease in children. Professor Hervé Seligmann, an infectious disease expert and biomedical researcher with over 100 peer-reviewed international publications, of the University of Aix-Marseille, has scrutinized the official COVID-19 statistics and figures of Israel, which has vaccinated 63% of its population, and fully vaccinated 57% of its population. Professor Seligmann sees no benefit in vaccinating those under 18, and significant risk of harm: There are several theories about why the risk of death is so low in the young including that the density of the ACE2 receptors that the virus uses to gain entry into cells is lower in the tissue of immature animals and this is expected to be true also in humans. However, the vaccines induce the cells of the recipient to 29
Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Children - United States, February 12-April 2, 2020. MMWR. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 69:422-426. 30 Tsabouri, S. et al. (2021), Risk Factors for Severity in Children with Coronavirus Disease 2019: A Comprehensive Literature Review. Pediatric Clinics of North America 68:321-338. 31 Zimmermann P, Curtis N Why is COVID-19 less severe in children? A review of the proposed mechanisms underlying the age-related difference in severity of SARS-CoV-2 infections Archives of Disease in Childhood 2021;106:429-439. 32 Ioannidis, J.P.A. (2020) Infection fatality rate of COVID-19 inferred from seroprevalence data. Bull. World Health Organ. -:BLT.20.265892.
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