Will Cain on vaccinations, 5/7/21
Citation From the May 7, 2021, edition of Fox News' The Will Cain Podcast
WILL CAIN (HOST): I don't want to say I told you so, but I told you so couple of weeks ago on The Will Cain Podcast. After Joe Biden's joint session of Congress, it was clear they're not requesting they're mandating vaccines. Maybe won't come in the form of a government mandate, but they're going to mandate vaccines and they're going to mandate it for our children. It's happening next week. The FDA is set to approve emergency use of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds. The CDC is now going to be recommending and by the way, your school, your private school, your summer camp will soon be requiring that your children be vaccinated. And we're all just going to go along, aren't we, like sheep complacent because we're afraid of the handwaving anti-vaxxer, anti-science mob that will yell at us if we dare to ask a single question, even if it's about the health of our children. I want you to listen to Dr. Francis Collins on ABC's Good Morning America.
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CAIN: Listen to that quote. Let's get this behind us. I want to put a pin in that. I want you to remember that phrase. Let's put this behind us and let's come back to that in a few moments. Let's take Dr. Collins up on following the evidence and following the facts and making a decision for our children on whether or not they need to be vaccinated for coronavirus.
Where we stand today, approximately -- and the numbers vary depending on your source, but they're all roughly in the same range -- the numbers suggest that 277 children between the ages of 0 and 17 have died from coronavirus. 277 of more than half a million deaths from COVID have been from kids under the age of 17. The vast majority of those were children who had underlying conditions. If you do the math, if you do the fractions, if you do the division, what you end up with is something like .0005 in worst estimates, .02% of deaths from coronavirus are occurring in children.
Now, there are people out there who say to me, oh, Will, come on, it's not about deaths. If you're still using that, then you're a Neanderthal who doesn't understand the issue. I appreciate, by the way, every comment, every comment I get on Instagram, every comment I get on Twitter. You guys know I love pushback. It's one of my great regrets so far at The Will Cain Podcast, doesn't have callers the way The Will Cain Show did, but we're going to figure that out.
In the meantime, I'll share with you some of those comments -- in this case, Instagram. Vegas Speedy Rob says to me the following. If you're still using the mortality rate as a benchmark of how to judge COVID-19, then you're beyond lost. Mortality rate is just one part of the puzzle. Overwhelming the hospitals is the bigger issue. But for those of you that are still clinging to the 99% survival rate, let me put this in terms that hopefully you can understand. Vegas Speedy Rob, goes on to say this: Food poisoning has a far, far less mortality rate than COVID. But I'll bet you anything you want to cook your food and wash your hands after you take a crap before you make a sandwich.
First of all, Vegas Speedy Rob does a nice job of trying to be logical, but he fails on multiple occasions. First, the analogy of comparing COVID precautions to food preparation precautions. It's true. We wash our hands. It's true we don't want our cooks and chefs going straight from a number two to whatever meal we order on the dollar menu. It's true we want to wash our fruits and vegetables, but we're not asking restaurants to completely shut down. We're not asking diners to wear plastic gloves. We're not absolutely keeping you physically separated from one another nor shutting down our schools, nor wearing masks, nor doing any of the absurd society altering, quote-unquote, precautions that we do when it comes to coronavirus. You're not comparing apples and oranges here, Vegas Speedy, Rob. You're comparing a mouse and an elephant. What more -- I'm not just relying on mortality stats. I think it's cute now that you pivot to hospitalizations. I thought that was the important stat. I thought that's where we started this back in what was it, spring of 2020, remember, quote, bend the curve. The idea was not to get us to a zero transmission rate. The idea was not to protect anyone anywhere from dying from COVID. The idea was to keep the hospitals from getting overwhelmed. That's what we were sold in March, April, and May of 2020. And we succeeded, by the way. But that success did not compel anyone to let go of restaurant shutdowns, school closures, masking or anti-masking. It didn't change a single thing that we bent the curve. All that changed was that we stopped saying or using the curve as our barometer. It magically disappeared. I'd say early fall of 2020. No. Then we moved it. We moved the bar to the mask debate. We now have big fights about whether or not you should wear a mask outdoors, indoors, children, or adults. And the standard for masking seems to be reducing us to essentially a 0% transmission rate. It's not tethered to hospitalizations. It's not tethered to mortality. We're now in the asinine position of trying to make COVID disappear through a combination of social distancing, masks, and, yes, vaccinations, which will be getting more to in just one moment.
But let me take Vegas Speedy Rob up on one more issue, and that is let's talk about kids and hospitalizations. Let's talk about kids and transmissions. Children have been a vector point for neither. Kids are not going to the hospital for COVID in great numbers. Kids' data has proven, CDC has suggested, do not transmit coronavirus at any great rate. That's why for months now, the recommendation has been to reopen our schools. At this point, someone out there who disagrees with me is going to say, wait, I just read in the last few weeks, kids are now a larger percentage of coronavirus infections. That's right. That's what the story is saying. The story is saying the kids now make up something like 20% of all COVID transmissions. And of course, our brain does all sorts of weird things. The minute we hear that, we think, wow, coronavirus cases among children on the rise. No overall coronavirus transmissions going down. That is what's happened. The elderly, the middle-aged, most of society, upwards of 60%, have received the corona's vaccination. Therefore, transmissions are going down. Of course, that means the percentage of cases in children will go up because they represent a bigger piece of a smaller pie. Children aren't getting it more. Everyone else is getting it less. So what is the number for hospitalizations and transmissions in cases of coronavirus in children? The same as mortality. We're talking about less than 1% of a risk for children when it comes to COVID. So does the data, does the evidence, does the science persuade you that our kids need a needle stuck in their arm?
Now, want to be clear about something. At this point, I know many people are going to wave their hands or scream anti-vaxxer, anti-science at what I'm saying. That's inevitable. This issue has now been reduced to the same level of our race debates. Any type of question, any type of debate, any type of exploration of the science is met with anti-vax, anti-science, racist. We've nothing left but ad hominem attacks. I'm fully aware of the lay of the land. But just like Joe Rogan, this is not anti-vaxx. Just like Tucker Carlson, it's not anti-science to ask questions. Just like most Americans out there with common sense. It's not Neanderthal thinking to do a cost-benefit analysis on whether or not our children should be taking an experimental drug. That, of course, will not stop people from all the usual name-calling. And let's be clear, that name-calling, it's not backed by science.
In fact, those claiming to be pro-vax or pro-science are anything but. They just use science like a fashion trend. They're sciency. They follow it blindly, like a religion. Their high priests are Neil deGrasse Tyson, Bill Nye the Science Guy, and of course, Bishop Dr. Anthony Fauci. I was listening, by the way, to a wonderful intellect named John McWhorter on a Reason podcast with Nick Gillespie. And he was making clear the parallels between religion and this new woke anti-racism. He said they have all the same trappings. They're on the hunt for heretics. There is no rebuttal. It's an act of faith, the tenets in which they believe. They have their high priests in people like Ibram Kendi, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and Robin DiAngelo. And they derive meaning and purpose from following these faith-based tenets of anti-racism. Faith and religion clearly have a valuable role in the human existence. But I might suggest you'll find deeper meaning and purpose in the principles of God than the word of Ibram Kendi.
But back to science. This is exactly the process or actually the lack of process that those that yell anti-vax and anti-science are using when it comes to their sciency in fashion opinions. I say the opposite of a process because that's what science is supposed to be. It's a process. It's questions. It sure isn't a conclusion, and it sure as hell isn't an edict. Science is constantly questioning reality, perceived certainties. Science is anything but firm conclusions taken on the word of an outside source. Science is anything but taking rock-hard conclusions as an article of faith on the word of outside authorities like the CDC. I was reminded of that, by the way, when Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night began to ask just some of those questions about the calculation that every single individual should make when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine.
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CAIN: Tucker was absolutely right. But of course, he was met with a chorus, a chant, a mob fist of anti-vaxxer, anti-science. He's dangerous. It's all so predictable. It will happen with this post. It will happen with his podcast. It will happen if I put this on social media. There will be a little flag at the bottom of this post on Instagram or Twitter or Facebook, and it will say visit the CDC for more particular guidance, specific fact-based knowledge. The views will be depressed. I promise you it won't get spread around. Big tech will turn it down. I promise you, this happens. You've probably seen it in some of your own posts. But Tucker was absolutely right. It's an intimate, individual decision, one accompanied by critical thinking, one accompanied by questions, one accompanied by a cost-benefit analysis on whether or not it's wise to vaccinate our 12-year-olds, whether or not it's good for their health, or whether or not it's good for society.
In the end, that's what this not argument, not persuasion, that's what this increasing drumbeat of a demand is about: society. Here's a headline from CNN this past week. “Vaccinating teens could be key to protecting us all this fall," key to protecting us all this fall. The argument does not say it's best for your child, says it's best for us all. That takes me back to the clip I played for you a little bit earlier from Dr. Francis Collins on Good Morning America. He said, let's put this all behind us. The focus is not on our children. The CDC is not a credible speaker whose worthy of each and every one of us outsourcing unthinkingly, unquestioningly our judgment when it comes to the health of our children. The CDC is not your child's father. The CDC is not your child's mother. And the CDC does not have your child's interest at the top of their priority list.
Need evidence? I'll give you this. In the past week, it's been revealed by a Freedom of Information request that the CDC's guidance in February of 2021 on when children should be back in school was not just influenced but dictated by the American Federation of Teachers. The teachers union emailed the CDC, laying out in detail when our children should be allowed to return to the classroom. The CDC adopted the language of the teacher union suggestion verbatim in providing their recommendations on when children are safe to return to school. Verbatim from the teachers union.
Do you think the teachers union has your kids at the top of their priority list? Do you think the CDC is looking out for your kids above all other interest?
I want to share with you this tweet, this article from a lady named Rukmini Callimachi of The New York Times. She says the following: “3 million, that's the estimate of how many children have dropped out of school as a result of the pandemic. To see in slow motion what it's like when a child falls behind. I spent a week with 11-year-old Jordan as he tried to learn." Three million. That's how many children have dropped out of school, not to mention how many have fallen into depression, how many were lost to suicide, how many retarded their socialization, not to mention how many simply received a lost year of poor education. Keep that in mind when the CDC advises social distancing at summer camp this fall. Keep that in mind when they tell you that your children should remain masked outdoors when they are doing anything except for swimming and a few other activities while at Sky Ranch. Keep that in mind when they demand that your 12 to 15-year-old receive the coronavirus vaccine.
A warning if you dare to run a cost-benefit analysis, if you dare to question, if you dare to decline. to outsource your judgment to the CDC, you will be called an anti-vaxxer, even though your child probably already takes 15 other vaccines to participate in whatever activities out there they're signed up for -- sports, camp, school. Keep that in mind when you don't follow the authorities, the high priests, the CDC, Dr. Fauci, like a sheep, without question. Keep that in mind when they tell you to vaccinate your 12 to 15-year-old, despite the science that says they're neither a threat for transmission nor is it a major threat to their health. And keep that in mind when in September, as Pfizer just announced on its earnings call, it expects to receive emergency use authorization for its COVID vaccine for 2 to 11-year-olds -- coming soon this September.
Look, I'm obviously not telling you that the vaccine is unsafe, and I'm not telling you to decline getting your kids vaccinated. What I'm saying is the CDC has not earned your trust to follow them blindly, that this vaccine is not FDA-approved only for emergency use, and it's just being honest to say we don't know the long-term ramifications for an experimental emergency-use drug. When you combine that with the stats on not only the transmission but the infection among children, what I'm saying is this: You cannot and you should not be shouted down or shamed for running a cost-benefit analysis on your children's health. We'll be right back with more of The Will Cain Podcast.
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