Ơ, thế thành hối lộ à

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John Tierney writes that “[a]gainst ethics and evidence, public officials push vaccine mandates for kids.” Three longer slices:

In a sane (lành mạnh, đúng mực) era, no ethics (đạo đức) review board (hội đồng đánh giá) would allow doctors (bác sĩ) to bribe (hối lộ) young children (trẻ nhỏ) to undergo a treatment (trải qua điều trị) with unknown dangers (nguy hiểm không lường trước) and minuscule (nhỏ xíu, rất nhỏ) benefits (lợi ích). But medical ethics are just one more casualty of the Covid pandemic, as Bill de Blasio cheerfully demonstrated at a recent press conference. New York’s mayor (thị trưởng) announced that children aged five and older would get $100 for being vaccinated against Covid—and then he made a direct pitch to those too young to appreciate the size of the city’s bribe.

“It buys a whole lot of candy,” the mayor explained.

Norms of science and medicine (chuẩn mực khoa học và thuốc) have been flouted (chế giễu, chê bai) throughout the pandemic, but the campaign to vaccinate schoolchildren represents a new low. It’s being led by the Centers for Disease Control with the help of politicians, journalists, and Sesame Street’s Big Bird (who appeared in a CNN special proselytizing children).

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Based on seroprevalence surveys, it appears that close to half of American schoolchildren have already had Covid. (The estimate was about 40 percent as of June and has undoubtedly risen during the spread of the Delta variant.) Children who’ve already had measles (bệnh sởi) or chickenpox (bệnh thủy đậu) aren’t required to be vaccinated against those diseases. Why should tens of millions of kids with natural immunity against Covid be pressured to get a vaccine with known side effects? Federal officials have offered various answers, none convincing. The CDC continues to insist that infection is not proved to confer (bàn bạc, hỏi ý kiến)) strong immunity and even published a study purporting to show that vaccinations offer better immunity. But as Martin Kulldorff of Harvard Medical School showed, that study was badly flawed (lỗi nghiêm trọng) and is contradicted (mâu thuẫn, trái với) by more rigorous research demonstrating that natural immunity (miễn dịch tự nhiên) is much stronger and longer-lasting than vaccine immunity.

For children without immunity, a vaccine would lessen the risk of being hospitalized or dying—but that risk for most children is already tiny (nhỏ bé, nhỏ xíu), particularly for younger kids. (So is the risk of severe “long Covid,” and it’s questionable that vaccination would offer additional protection.)

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The creepiest justification for vaccinating children is that it would “help schools safely return to in-person learning as well as extracurricular activities and sports,” in the CDC’s words. The United States has been singularly cruel (tàn bạo, tàn ác, tàn độc) to children throughout the pandemic, closing schools and masking (đeo khẩu trang) students for extended periods despite extensive evidence that these measures were unnecessary (không cần thiết) and harmful (có hại). Sweden showed that keeping schools open throughout the pandemic—without masks, social distancing (giãn cách xã hội), smaller classes or strict quarantines—did little to endanger students, teachers, or the community. Other European countries have also kept schools open without forcing young students to wear masks. Today, with most American adults vaccinated, there’s less reason than ever to close schools. Yet instead of apologizing for their previous child abuse, officials are placating neurotic adults—and teachers’ unions—by threatening still more punishment unless students submit to vaccination.

The threat (mối nguy) is a version of the mob’s old protection racket—Nice school you got here, be a shame if anything happened to it—but at least the mob’s extortionists (kẻ tống tiền, kẻ tham nhũng) didn’t target (nhắm mục tiêu) children. Mobsters were content with cash payoffs, which would be preferable to today’s demands for mass vaccination. The children would be better off if de Blasio and the other adult bullies settled for taking their candy money.

Bài trước: Chẳng có vị gì