FALSE: COVID-19 vaccination has no benefits for children

At a glance

• Claim: COVID-19 vaccination has no benefits for children.
• Rating: FALSE
• The facts: The COVID-19 vaccine has been proven safe and effective in preventing infection, hospitalization, and death in children due to the disease.
• Why we fact-checked this: The video with this claim has over 1,700 reactions and 1,500 comments.

Complete details

A video posted by Lynn Agno on Facebook has made claims that there are no benefits to vaccinating children. The video goes on to say that vaccination against COVID-19 has negative effects on children. In the video Lynn Agno says that “[mag-] cite ka ng isa na maganda sa turok. Ano ang benefit…na pinu-push, lalo na sa mga bata…. Hindi sila dapat makakuha nitong turok.”

(Cite something good about the vaccine. What are the benefits, that they are pushing kids to get vaccinated? Kids shouldn’t get this vaccine.)

These claims are false.

Vaccination has been found to drastically reduce the rates of COVID-19 infection in children. These include preventing symptomatic and severe cases of COVID-19, which lead to hospitalization, as well as reducing the risk for multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C), a deadly complication from COVID-19 infection. 

Children who are vaccinated against COVID-19 are also less likely to get someone else infected with COVID-19. 

These are findings shared by both the Department of Health as well as the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  

Furthermore, the Philippine Pediatric Society and the Pediatric Infectious Disease Society of the Philippines recommend the vaccination of children against the COVID-19. These physician groups have taken into account a large body of research as well as an assessment of the quality of this research in guiding their recommendation.

The benefits of getting vaccinated against COVID-19 extend far beyond protection against the virus itself. Through vaccination, children and parents can ease anxiety about contracting the disease, society can move towards herd immunity, schools will be able to reopen, and children can begin to attend social gatherings again. These are activities are necessary for the health and development of children. – Renzo Arceta/Rappler.com

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