Doctors, Parents Sue HHS Over COVID-19 Vaccine Emergency Use Authorization in Children Under 16

Max Zito, age 13, is inoculated by Nurse Karen Pagliaro at Hartford Healthcares mass vaccination center at the Connecticut Convention Center in Hartford, Conn. on May 13, 2021. Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images

A number of doctors and parents have sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and its secretary, Xavier Becerra, in a federal court, seeking to prevent the expansion of the emergency use authorization (EUA) of COVID-19 vaccines from including children under 16 years old.

America’s Frontline Doctors—a nonprofit organization—and parents filed a motion for a temporary restraining order in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama on May 19, saying “every plaintiff with children or patients in the target age group stands to be immediately and irreparably harmed by the extension.”

The motion is against HHS and its relevant subagencies and personnel, including but not limited to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institutes of Health (NIH), Becerra, the HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, and the HHS Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

“We’ve never seen this level of side effects for any vaccine without the FDA taking action,” Dr. Angelina Farella, pediatric medical director for America’s Frontline Doctors, said in a statement. “The Rotavirus vaccine was pulled for 15 cases of non-lethal side effects and the Swine Flu vaccine was pulled for 25 deaths. But now, by the CDC’s own data, we are seeing a 12,000 percent increase in deaths with these vaccines and they’re still talking about giving this to our kids.”

A vial of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 in Seattle, Wash., on Jan. 24, 2021. Ted S. Warren/AP Photo

According to the CDC’s own medical and scientific data, in the last four months, more than 4,000 deaths following COVID-19 vaccinations were reported, as opposed to 1,500 total deaths in the previous ten years for all vaccines, the statement pointed out.

Dr. Farella said that children are at statistically zero risk for COVID-19. The data shows that the survivability rate for COVID-19 patients under the age of 20 is 99.997 percent.

“There is no public interest in subjecting children to an inoculation program, in order to protect them from a disease that simply does not threaten them,” said the plaintiffs’ leading attorney Lowell H. Becraft. “Children are inherently incapable of providing informed consent. Neither the children, nor their parents, can possibly give informed consent to these vaccines, since the DHHS Secretary has failed to make ... even the minimum statutory disclosures regarding risks and alternative treatments.”

The FDA expanded the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to children as young as 12 on May 10, saying the vaccine is safe and offers strong protection for younger teens.

Two days later, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which offers assistance to the CDC, voted unanimously to approve the use of the Pfizer vaccine on children aged 12 to 15.

“For vaccination to do its job, we must do our critical part. That means vaccinating as many people as possible who are eligible,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said at the time.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, testifies during a U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee hearing to examine the COVID-19 response, focusing on an update from federal officials, on Capitol Hill in Washington on March 18, 2021. Susan Walsh/Pool via Reuters

Pfizer further announced at the time that it’s been evaluating the safety and efficacy of its vaccine in children 6 months to 11 years of age.

“We all would like to put COVID-19 behind us, but we must be responsible about it as physicians, parents, and as a nation. People are being misled here and we need to ensure that we don’t rob our children of their future because of a rush to administer a vaccine that has not been fully tested and approved,” Dr. Teryn Clarke, Executive Communications Director for America’s Frontline Doctors, said in the statement.

Researchers are concerned that spike proteins from the vaccines could cause disease even without the virus, cross the blood-brain barrier, and could increase auto-immune disorders, according to America’s Frontline Doctors’ statement.

The plaintiffs said in the petition that they’re not against COVID-19 vaccines and that most or all of them have been vaccinated in the past.

Last week the CDC said it’s investigating reports of heart inflammation in teenagers and young adults who have received a vaccine against the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.

At least 18 teens and young adults in Connecticut were hospitalized for myocarditis, or heart inflammation, after receiving COVID-19 vaccines.

“Our health and medical experts still continue to convey that it is the right step for 12 to 15-year-olds to get vaccinated, that these are limited cases,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters on Monday, indicating that President Joe Biden had been notified of the reported cases. “And that, obviously, the risks of contracting COVID are certainly significant, even for people of that age.”

Over 77,000 children under the age of 12 have received at least one shot as of May 24, according to the CDC. Another 2.1 million between the ages of 12 and 15 have gotten at least one jab.

HHS didn’t respond to a request from The Epoch Times for comment.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.