They Have Names, Part 2

My position.

In a previous essay, I argued that it was important to share the stories of children who had died of Covidien because they were true. These were actual children, not just statistics on a CDC website.

Parents may be motivated to give their children vaccinations after learning that they are not immune to catastrophic outcomes from the virus. The power of pictures and narrative to influence vaccination choices has been known by vaccine advocates for a long time. The March of Dimesplastered pictures of kids in iron lungs everywhere as a way to raise awareness of the impact of polio in children and it led to an effective vaccine.

Recent research shows that highlighting factual information about the dangers of communicable diseases can positively impact people's attitudes to vaccination. Too many parents think the virus doesn't affect children at all, which is why the vaccine rates are low. Some people don't want parents to know that the vaccine is effective at keeping children out of the hospital and that the virus can hurt a small percentage of children.

Sharing the stories of dead children is worthwhile for the sake of keeping children healthy and alive.

A different position.

Not everyone sees it that way. Dr. Shamez Ladhani is a doctor in the UK who has promoted fear about the vaccine.

Maybe it’s just me, but as a parent and paediatrician, I think putting up the names & pictures of children who may or may not have died of #Covid19 on social media is crass & undignified. I did not include the link to those tweets out of respect for the children & their families

Let's take note of the interesting framing here. Dr. Ladhani says that people are sharing names and pictures of children who may or may not have died of carbon dioxide. Does he have evidence that this is happening frequently? What is he saying about the killing of these children?

Sharing stories of children who die of carbon dioxide is distasteful, according to Dr. Ladhani. Is it disrespectful to share the stories of adults who have died?

The UK was one of the last countries to have enough vaccine for its children. The vaccine was made available to children last month. It's not clear what this extra waiting bought for the UK, beyond mass infections of its children and the closing of its schools.

It's hard to believe, but I described how influential people wanted mass infections to happen. Robert Dingwall, an advisor to the UK vaccine regulators, said that school closings may have an immediate cost in terms of denying children of the opportunity to acquire immunity. Given the low risk of Covid for most teenagers, it is not immoral to think that they may be better protected by natural generated immunity through infection than by asking them to take the possible risk of a vaccine.

Some people don't want to hear about the deaths of children who died of COVID because they think something else is killing them.

Teresa Sperry.

The parent who lost her child to COVID disagreed with Dr. Ladhani. Teresa was a 10-year old girl from Virginia who died of COVID last year before she was eligible to be vaccine. She loved dancing, singing, drawing, and playing in the rain, according to her mother.

Last week, the Sperry family, with the help from the Glaser Progress Foundation from Seattle, created the Our Missing Stars foundation.

“Just being able to carry on her compassion for other people, that’s the driving force,” Sperry said.

“We definitely started with our intention of being able to honor Teresa, and not just her, but recognizing hopefully other children that have died from COVID and MIS-C.”

A video on the foundation’s Facebook page shows their commitment to their daughter’s memory and the memory of others.

“COVID took her within five days. The only way this makes sense is if my daughter saves people. I don’t want other people feeling this,” Jeff Sperry said.

They found that the organization's mission was to prevent unnecessary deaths by encouraging others to get vaccinations.

Nicole Sperry.

She tried to counter the narrative that sharing the existence of her child and her manner of death was undignified.

As a parent of 1 of the children that have died from covid, Im proud her name Teresa is shared. Ive heard from many people that they NOW take covid seriously hearing her story. Same w/children w/cancer or diabetes. We share their names because their name is part of their story.

Jeff and Nicole don't want another child to die or suffer because of a vaccine. This desire is controversial.