Put them first?

Some of my writings may be challenging or even sensitive for us personally. Thank you for daring to explore. Be reassured that God is sovereign over everything. There are currents in the world that obscure or misrepresent truth, making good appear bad, or bad appear good. Jesus calls us to be as be wise as serpents and innocent as doves - see Matthew 10:16. We are to look beneath the surface of things and discern.

Societies have always put the needs of adults above children. The disciples tried to do this when people were bringing children to Jesus for Him to bless them.

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them. ~Mark 10:13-16

Jesus stopped the disciples blocking the children. He reversed the order of priority; the children's needs came before the adults who wanted to talk to Him. He put them first. And he demonstrated in his life and death that the nature of love is sacrificial. He focussed his attention on the vulnerable, the poor and outcasts. We therefore examine the vaccination policy in the light of Jesus' revolutionary teaching.

On 13 September 2021 the Chief Medical Officers recommended COVID-19 vaccination for 12-15 year olds. I watched Professor Chris Whitty make this announcement very carefully. He said that what trumped the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation’s recommendation that children should NOT be vaxxed is that the vax would 'reduce educational disruption' - school absence ^[1]
This is disingenuous; the disruption was caused by the government rules to isolate, not so much children being sick from COVID, the disease. Medical treatment administered for non-medical reasons is highly questionable - especially for our precious children.

On 16 February 2022 the JVCI recommended offering vaccination to 5-11 year old children. On their own admission, they estimate 85% of children had natural immunity anyway, from January 2022^[2].

But we need to ask moral questions about vaccinating children, even if they're uncomfortable ones. Is the vaccine safe for them? Do the benefits outweigh the risks?

We know that the vast majority of children experience COVID mildly and quickly get over it. Between 3 January 2020 and 7 May 2021 the ONS reported that just 6 children under 9 years had died of COVID, 9 aged 10 to 14 years, and 22 aged 15-19 years old^[3] most with serious pre-existing conditions. On the other hand, the MRHA Yellow Card reporting system at 10 March 2022 recorded 2061 deaths, and 1,471,106 adverse reactions possibly associated with the vaccines.^[4] It is hard to interrogate the data on the government website - see the UK Column handy tool. Generally only about 10% of serious adverse reactions and 2 to 4% of non-serious reactions are reported to the Yellow Card Scheme, maybe less.^[5] Many don't connect the dots between their vaccine and an injury. On that basis the true number of deaths may be in the region of 20,000. This is the danger for individuals of promoting a mass, non-sterilising (doesn't stop transmission) vaccination programme, without taking into account that SARS-CoV-2 is age and co-morbidity stratified, and without weighing up the risks for younger age groups. The average age of death^[6] from COVID-19 for men is 81; (just under normal life-expectancy of 82.3 years) and 85 for women, (normally 85.8 years in 2018 to 2020).^[7] We can assume there will be deaths and adverse reactions in children following vaccination. Indeed 700 doctors and medical professionals are so concerned they signed an Open Letter to the JVCI and Professor Chris Whitty calling for a pause to the vaccine rollout for children.^[8]

We do not have any long-term safety data on the vaccines which are only on Emergency Use authorisation as of writing; in May 2021 BMJ Senior Editor Peter Doshi asked: In the rush for regulatory approval, do we need more data?^[9] We also know that these new mRNA gene treatment vaccines do not prevent transmission - and in any case, we should not be using children to protect adults.

When Jesus explained how good God is, He used a parent-child example:

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him! ~ Matthew 7:9-11

Jesus is saying we instinctively know how to give good things to our children. Our adult responsibility to children is to protect them, to ask questions, to be informed, and to pray for discernment before we make decisions. Let's:

Put them first, lift them high, teach them balance, let them fly.