I write in regards to “It’s Time for Kids to Return to Normalcy, With or Without the Vaccine” (December 2, 2021), which was submitted anonymously. I find it irresponsible of The Jewish Link to let this letter be the final word on the vaccine discussion that has dominated the Letters section. While the letter writer is not the worst example of an extreme anti-vaxxer, the arguments he presents could be described as “anti-vax lite.” While agreeing that vaccines are useful for adults, he gives many arguments against vaccinating children. All of these arguments are based on cherry-picked facts, and, crucially, do not come close to fairly evaluating how a parent should decide if his or her child should get vaccinated.

Most parents would—or at least should—decide to have their children vaccinated if doing so is more likely to lead to a better health outcome than not getting them vaccinated. But that is not the criterion the letter writer—supposedly a doctor—uses. He correctly states that the risks associated with COVID to children are low, but does not seem to care that for children, as well as adults, the risks are much higher than the risks from vaccines.

The only actual risk the letter writer cites is myocarditis, a known, rare and usually mild side effect of COVID vaccines, which has led to a handful of short hospitalizations. But a COVID infection is a strong risk factor in myocarditis, a fact that is not well known, probably because there are many other more common, and more serious, complications from COVID.

More importantly, in the United States there have been 974 deaths and 69,988 hospitalizations in children 17 and under. (And unfortunately, will be higher by the time you are reading this.) How many of those hospitalized will have long-term complications? What are the comparable numbers for vaccine side effects? A parent who decides to have his or her children not vaccinated increases the odds of a bad outcome by hundreds or thousands of times. Why would any parent do that? Why would any doctor advise it?

I have focused mainly on the health effects of a vaccine on a child. But I also find it offensive that the letter writer dismisses the impact of spreading a deadly infectious disease as the “spread of positive PCR tests.” This doctor does not claim to be an epidemiologist, but asserts that since a high percentage of the population is vaccinated and there are still surges of infection, he knows that vaccines do nothing in stopping COVID’s spread. Is the doctor aware that the surges have been stronger in areas with low vaccination rates? Does he know that despite the emergence of much more infectious variants and drastic reductions in social-distancing measures these surges are weaker than the pre-vaccine surges?