"In "The White House Keeps Stoking Covid Fears" (op-ed, June 6), Jay Bhattacharya misconstrues Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data and disease-burden estimates regarding Covid-19 and influenza. This inappropriately plays down the risks that Covid-19 and seasonal influenza pose to children, at the population level. Correctly read, CDC surveillance indicates that Covid-19 has caused substantially higher hospitalizations and deaths in children than seasonal influenza usually does, as the CDC itself has recently said publicly.
Both Covid-19 and influenza are vaccine-preventable illnesses that warrant concern and mitigation. Alerting the public that Covid-19, like influenza, is a population-level public-health risk to children is not "scaremongering." Comparing such diseases to external causes of death -- like drug- and alcohol-related deaths, as Dr. Bhattacharya does -- is, however, an epidemiologically inappropriate tactic.
We have a duty to warn the public about risks of diseases and threats to public safety, especially ones that public-health campaigns can improve. Dr. Bhattacharya argues that highlighting such information undermines public health or erodes confidence. I disagree. Sharing data transparently allows parents, administrators and communities to take the steps deemed necessary so that they can confidently keep schools safe and open.
Jeremy Faust, M.D.
Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Boston" [1]
1. Let Parents Know the True Covid Risk to Kids
Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 14 June 2022: A.18.
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