Stanford Health Policy Professor Debunks White House Claim COVID A Far Greater Threat to Kids Than Flu

As the White House anticipates approval of the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) application for COVID vaccines for babies and young children, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of health policy at Stanford University and a founding fellow at the Academy for Science and Freedom, says the claim that COVID is “a far greater threat to kids than the flu is” amounts to “scare-mongering.”

Bhattacharya responded in a column at the Wall Street Journal Sunday to White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha’s recent tweet in which he made the claim “COVID is a far greater threat to kids than the flu is.”

The Stanford health policy professor asserted the study Jha cited and praised as supporting his claim is actually “flawed.”

Great figure by @jeremyfaust says it all

COVID is a far greater threat to kids than flu is

And you know what dramatically lowers risk and keeps kids out of the hospital?

Vaccines

If your kid 5 or older isn’t vaccinated, its time

Full article: https://t.co/r2gNeXkNx0 pic.twitter.com/7goa03DYVE

— Ashish K. Jha, MD, MPH (@AshishKJha46) May 31, 2022

 

Jha, Bhattacharya noted, “linked to an article by Harvard Medical School instructor Jeremy Faust, which claims that Covid killed more than 600 children in 2021, whereas the flu kills ‘an average’ of only 120 children annually.”

Bhattacharya cited three reasons why Faust’s data are “severely skewed.”… (Excerpt from The Virginia Star)