Writing in his official blog, [new health minister Professor Lo Chung-mau] also warned that the coronavirus was not like the “common flu”, citing a case involving an 18-month-old child in Singapore who had died of encephalitis several days after contracting Covid-19.
“What makes me even sadder is that the toddler’s three-year-old sibling seemed to understand that his brother would never come back, losing his appetite and sitting quietly all day, dazed,” he said.
A couple of points:
1. This is an anecdote. It's a very powerful picture of a tragedy, it’s very compelling, people will remember it. But...
2. It’s not data. It’s not representative. Children can die of many diseases, including Covid. It’s always tragic, but not always -- -as here -- representative. The number of children who die of Covid is tiny. In Hong Kong, to date, we have 12,940 children under 3 who have tested positive for Covid and of those ONE has died. (I happen to know the case, and it was a serious comorbidity). That’s less than one in ten thousand. It may be worth vaccinating against that risk; or it may not. We don’t yet have the data. Because....
3. AFAIK: there has been no large-scale testing of any of the vaccines for the under 3s. The UK is not recommending vaccine jabs for them.
So.... I think Professor Lo, our new health minister, is irresponsible in retailing an anecdote like this one. Because it is so vivid and persuasive, it will have people thinking that children are at serious risk of dying from Covid. Which they are not. According to the science.
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