Covid-19

High VT youth infection numbers follow high testing

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VT Dept. of Health graph of 11/9 shows climbing rate of infection among ages 5-11 last week. But were the high numbers due to increased testing?

By Guy Page

Vermont’s high number of Covid-positive children ages 5-11 followed unusually high testing, the Scott administration confirmed yesterday. 

Gov. Phil Scott started his Tuesday press briefing by announcing the White House yesterday lauded Vermont for having the highest vaccine registration for children ages 5-11.

“The White House Covid Response Coordinator Jeff Zeints highlighted Vermont to all the other Governors as having the (most]) five- to 11-year-olds scheduled for vaccination – leading the nation once again,” Scott said. “As of this morning about one third of this entire population, about 14,000 kids, have signed up for their appointment or gotten their first dose.” 

Scott added that, “It’s also important to know the five- to 11-year-olds are contracting Covid at the highest rate right now, which is why parents should sign their kids up as soon as possible.”

Statistics published by the Vermont Dept. of Health show the 5-11 age group did indeed show the highest rate of infection per capita. Positive cases among ages 5-11 went from about 50 per 100K at the beginning of last week to 90 by week’s end. 

But the question remains – did the rate rise because children are actually contracting the virus at a higher rate than their elders, or because more children were tested? On Nov. 3, the testing reached 18,407 – the second highest in state history and the most since March, the Dept. of Health dashboard shows. However, it does not break down the testing by age groups. Tuesday, the administration didn’t deny the strong link between high positive cases and high testing, as shown in their responses to media questions. 

Vermont Daily Chronicle: You and your officials today have mentioned that the increased cases among children are a reason to have them vaccinated. However, isn’t it also true that last week’s high numbers of positives among children was in direct proportion to the high number of tests among children? 

Gov. Scott: “Well, certainly, we had – I think there was one day (Nov. 3) we had 18,000 tests (among all age groups) and a significant number of those – that was the big day that we had almost 500 positive cases. So the more testing you do, the more you find. So that could be. But I’ll let Commissioner (of Dept. of Financial Regulation Michael) Pieciak answer that.” 


Com. Pieciak: When we look at the per capita rates for the five- to 11-year-olds, they’ve been the highest age group not just this week, or last week, or the week before that, but really for the last two months. We really haven’t noticed anything disproportionately in terms of the amount of testing. If we were to look at their positivity rate, it would likely have gone up like the rest of the states as well. So again, that’s really the reason for why it’s critical to get that age group vaccinated.”

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11 replies »

  1. Scott and Pieciak’s answer to VDC’s question is certainly illustrates the conundrum of official government policy vs. sane medical treatment and outcomes. Since the risk to a child under 19 is so slight- and the death rate at zero in Vermont, would not it make sense to allow the virus to take it’s course and enable natural immunity for the child? We as a society have done the very same thing with many childhood diseases (think chicken pox) for decades, until a sterilizing vaccine was produced, tested AND APPROVED.
    Yet here we are, clamoring and demanding for our children to be vaccinated with a never used mRNA gene therapy, under an Emergency Use Authorization. (Don’t argue this vax is “approved”, it is NOT currently for children) No human on this planet has any idea of the long term effects of this “vax” on anyone, let alone children- and some members of the FDA board that approved it for EUA have reservations- One, Dr. Eric Rubin of Harvard University, said, “We’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it.”
    Think long and hard, parents. This is about your Childs long term health, not yours. It’s not about missing school, or work. It’s not about conforming to what government tells you, nor what the school board demands. What you choose today will have long lasting effect on your children. Possibly to their health, definitely to the world they will live in. If you choose the “vax” it cannot be undone, should Scott, Levine and Pieciak be wrong.

  2. Begs the question if the tests are so reliable then why is the government sunsetting it at the end of the year???? And maybe some of those tests are wrong??????

  3. It’s like this is all a game to Phil. He was like this with the shots to begin with for adults too, I guess I shouldn’t have expected any different.

    Has to make sure to tell XiDen/Brendan that he’s done his part.

  4. This recent breakthrough case report by the Vermont Department of Health is an excellent example of misleading statistical bias.
    https://vtdigger.org/tag/breakthrough-cases/

    Specifically, with regard to the ‘Unvaccinated’ Death rate (per 100k), what 100k cohort does the report use? … is it ‘per 100k’ of the total population? No.

    A little reverse-engineering of the arithmetic clearly shows that the published Unvaccinated cohort does not include approximately 100,000 Unvaccinated Vermonters.

    If the report data is correct (a big if) the proportional math using the published total deaths for the month of October (21 Vaccinated and 16 Unvaccinated) shows us that this report estimates there are approximately 391,000+- vaccinated Vermonters and approximately 142,602+- Unvaccinated. This adds up to about 534,000 total Vermonters included in the report’s combined cohorts – apparently only those Vermonters who are ‘eligible’ for vaccines.

    But that’s 100,000 people short of including Vermont’s total population of 634,000 people. In other words – most of the children under 18 years of age who aren’t eligible for the vaccines aren’t included. And, consequently, they aren’t vaccinated either. At least not yet.

    If you add all of the Unvaccinated Vermonters, including the ineligible children, together as the basis for determining the odds of death in the Unvaccinated cohort, the odds of death reported (respectively) at 2.3 times and 2.4 times higher for the Unvaccinated is more accurately half of that listed in the report. The odds should be stated (respectively) as 1.38 times and 1.11 times higher.

    The infection rate and hospitalization rates are likely then equally skewed.

    No wonder the State is so anxious to have the children vaccinated. Because when they are, and because they are so much less likely to be infected, or hospitalized, or die from the virus than those 18 years of age and older, adding the children to the ‘Vaccinated’ cohort will only increase the proportionate odds that the Unvaccinated will suffer.

    At least that is what these vaccine inclined folks hope. Think about it. We can clearly see that vaccinated people can be infected and reinfected. They are just as likely to pass the virus to others. And as another recent VT Chronicle story points out – VT has less natural immunity protection due to high vax rate,.

    Please, do the math yourselves. Don’t just take my word for it. Caveat emptor.

  5. Dept of Health guidelines for close contact tracing have two standards for testing. If close contact and unvaccinated, guideline recommends getting tested twice – at 2 days and at 7 days (to end quarantine). If close contact and vaccinated, “consider getting a test”, but no quarantine. Here is the source:

    https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.healthvermont.gov%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fdocuments%2Fdocx%2FCOVID19-Template-letter-close-contact-guidance-workplace-event.docx

    Of course 5-11 year old kids are tested at a higher rate. Parents want to be done with quarantine.

  7. What is not reported is the number of people who actually became sick out of those tested. How about a breakdown? No symptoms, sniffles, doctor visit with early intervention, hospitalization and include age groups in the information. Won’t happen because I bet that information would show covid is not a problem with children and not as much of a problem overall as claimed.

  8. Crimes against humanity and coming after the innocent children without hesitation. Abusing the elders with complete disregard. Sick depravity such as this knows no limits. God help us.

  9. Just because there are positive covid tests with kids, does not mean they are sick. They are just covid positive. How many of these tests are the repeat tests? how many are the same person being tested multiple times? Each of those positive tests are being counted a a NEW case and not the retest of the same pt. This game is being played because of Covid money! The more cases you have the more covid money you get. Simple!
    How many of these tests are false positives? How many are home testing kits that are giving more false positives than negatives? How many of the PCR testing kits are being made in China instead of at Abbot Labs in Maine? Personally, I think it is way too early to be giving kids an vaccine under EUA BEFORE puberty.and further testing. The jury is still out on fertiity and menstrual issues. Those statistics will not even be available for at least 5 years. At this point much of this covid vaccination push is the teachers union!! Every parent has the right to choose what is best for their children.

  10. While the White House lauds Vermont for high registration of vaccines for 5-11 year olds, the Vermonters with any common sense are ashamed of the legalized child abuse celebrated. One death in Vermont under the age of 30 from the plandemic. Yet we have had over 8,000 deaths in 2021 from the vaccine.