Fox & Friends attacks FDA for being likely to authorize COVID-19 vaccines for young children
Co-host Ainsley Earhardt starts fearmongering about schools requiring the vaccine
Published
Citation From the June 15, 2022, edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Let's talk about the FDA, because they're meeting this week, they're meeting today to talk about COVID vaccines for kids under five. What are your recommendations? If you have a six-month-old, do you get them vaccinated if they do pass this?
DR. MARTY MAKARY (FOX NEWS MEDICAL CONTRIBUTOR): If a child has a special medical condition, those are the ones who show it. Those are the children who come to the hospital with COVID complications. If the child has not had COVID in the past, then there may be a case there. And a healthy child, it's not compelling, but certainly the kid with a special medical condition who does not have natural immunity. Now, if the FDA is trying to take its already-shattered reputation with the public and make it even worse, they're doing that today. They're about to authorize this COVID vaccine for 16 million children, 90-plus percent of whom have already had COVID based on a small study of kids who did not have COVID, that was the condition to be in that study. So, if – it is ignoring natural immunity as actually having significant implications now, and even that small study that showed that it works in kids, shows it didn't work very well, as low as 30% effective in the first few months. And that goes down the drain after a few months.
EARHARDT: There are a lot of parents out there who say, "I hope they don't approve this because I don't want to get my 4-year-old vaccinated. But we're worried that my 4-year-old's school or preschool might say you're going to have to be vaccinated." Do you think that schools will mandate this if they approve it today?
MAKARY: Some schools will. There is tremendous vaccine enthusiasm across the country, even though the data may not really be there to support it. People have a distorted perception of risk with COVID and children at the policy level. At the FDA meeting and at the CDC meetings, they are using data that undercounts the number of cases out there in children, which makes the case fatality rate look more dangerous than it really is. And they undercount adverse events from COVID vaccination, which makes the vaccine look safer than it really is. So they're not using great numbers. And in fact, the FDA even said yesterday at the meeting we're extrapolating data from adults.
EARHARDT: That's infuriating.
MAKARY: Yeah. A lot of people are upset about that and they have a right to be.
EARHARDT: Dr. Makary, thank you so much for coming on. When will we find out if they approve it?
MAKARY: This afternoon. And it's likely they will. It's almost certain that they will.