Jillian Byrne
Mr Ippolito
Core Chemistry: Current Event #6
10/28/21
pfizer-vaccine-children-5-to-11.html
Lafraniere, Sharon, and Noah Weiland. “F.D.A. Says Pfizer Vaccine's Benefits Outweigh Key Risks in Children 5 to 11.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/us/politics/pfizer-vaccine-children-5-to-11.html.
I decided to review the article, “F.D.A. Says Pfizer Vaccines Benefits Outweigh Key Risks in Children 5 to 11,” by Sharon LaFraniere and Noah Weiland, published by the New York Times. LaFraniere and Weiland’s article revolves around the debate on whether or not the Pfizer Vaccine should be administered for children 5 to 11; the article leaned to yes, it should be approved for children 5-11. To support this perspective, the article discusses, for the first time, this past Friday, October 22nd, 2021, federal regulators evaluated the safety and efficacy of a coronavirus vaccine for children 5 to 11. Coincidentally, this analysis came on the same day data was posted by the Food and Drug Administration. The data demonstrated that the vaccine had a 90.7 percent efficacy rate in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 in a clinical trial of 5-11-year-olds. These conclusions are hoped to be the rainbow our dark, rainy world needs right now as the data can add momentum for F.D.A. authorization of the pediatric dose on an emergency basis, possibly as soon as next week. One federal regulator wrote, in regards to the counterargument that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is linked to myocarditis, “The overall analysis predicted that the numbers of clinically significant Covid-19-related outcomes prevented would outweigh the numbers of vaccine-associated excess myocarditis cases.”
The approval of the Pfizer Vaccine for 5 to 11-year-olds would allow younger kids to return to a more normal childhood. The idea that little kids, trying to enjoy every second of their short childhood, have not been able to interact with other children in school, on the playground, in sports, and more since the beginning of 2020 is heartbreaking. If the idea of that doesn’t melt your heart, then consider, this approval would also positively affect every age group. The ability for 5 to 11 years to become vaccinated would result in millions of newly vaccinated Americans.
LaFraniere and Weiland’s article was very well written, the overall message was crystal clear. The piece was well-researched, featuring both quotes and statistics from experts. Experts such as Dr. Kathryn M. Edwards, a professor of pediatrics in the division of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, had their thoughts and insight voiced in the article. Although the piece consisted of reliable sources, it was a bit one-sided. The negatives of children 5 through 11 years of age receiving the vaccine were touched on but were never the main focus. The authors mentioned the risk of myocarditis due to vaccination but never gave any data on how many cases of myocarditis are linked to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Works Cited
Lafraniere, Sharon, and Noah Weiland. “F.D.A. Says Pfizer Vaccine's Benefits Outweigh Key Risks in Children 5 to 11.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/us/politics/pfizer-vaccine-children-5-to-11.html.
Isabel Haller
ReplyDeleteCore Chemistry
Current Event #6
October 31st, 2021
Jillian Byrne’s review of the article “F.D.A. Says Pfizer Vaccine’s Benefits Outweigh Key Risks in Children 5 to 11” from the New York Times was incredibly well written. In her review, Jillian writes about the testing stage of COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 5-11, and how important it is that we can get these kids to enjoy their childhood amongst the pandemic. While there are many things that Jillian did very well in her article, there were a couple that stood out to me. Firstly, she can strike a perfect balance between welcoming her readers and still using an informative tone that makes her review seem more credible. Jillian writes using words that are easy to understand as a reader who’s not familiar with medical studies, but not so much that the article seems too casual. Also, Jillian, towards the end, targets the reader’s emotional side. She invites you to think about the effect of COVID on children who are in their formative years, and reflects on how “heartbreaking” it is that they won’t be able to experience life and grow up the way most people have. Lastly, Jillian’s last paragraph outlines exactly what she critiques about the original article. She makes it clear that she would make the article less biased, and this is very effective in demonstrating her understanding of the topic to readers.
It was difficult to find parts of Jillian’s review that could be improved upon. She did such a fantastic job that brainstorming criticism was a challenge. Eventually, a conclusion was reached that there were two (very minor) places where Jillian could improve her writing. Firstly, she used a metaphor towards the beginning of the review that was rather unnecessary. She wrote that the conclusions from vaccine trials could be the “rainbow our dark, rainy world needs right now” (Byrne). Also, Jillian could have elaborated a little more on her summary of the article contents. The original writing was probably very long, and it would have made more sense if the summary, in return, was longer.
This review was a very enjoyable read overall. I learned a lot while reading Jillian Byrne’s commentary because she included so many statistics. Jillian’s writing was very influential on my overall understanding of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11, and the more that people read articles and reviews like this, the more people will be educated and get the vaccine. Hopefully, as Jillian writes in her review, we can help today’s children return to their normal activities and let them enjoy their childhoods without the pain and inconvenience of masks and COVID-19.
Lafraniere, Sharon, and Noah Weiland. “F.D.A. Says Pfizer Vaccine's Benefits Outweigh Key Risks in Children 5 to 11.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 22 Oct. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/22/us/politics/pfizer-vaccine-children-5-to-11.html