“Pro-life” Activist Abby Johnson claimed that “statistically children are not dying from COVID” in a YouTube video.
The CDC says that as of December 8, 2021, 230 children ages 0-4 have died of COVID, and 527 children ages 5-18 have died from COVID. That means the total number of children to have died from COVID is 757.
Johnson promoted the video on Twitter with this headline: “The Left is unrelenting, mask mandates, vaccine mandates, and now they’re trying to do the same to our kids. I just PROVED that masking our kids is a terrible idea.”
Johnson, a COVID anti-vaxxer, cited the American Academy of Pediatrics and CDC, which states: “CDC recommends that everyone 5 years and older get a COVID-19 vaccine.”
The CDC says on another page that children over five should be vaccinated and masked at school.
Johnson skipped that part to say that “hospitalization and death is uncommon in children.” Johnson went on to quote the CDC as saying the hospitalization rate is 0.1 to 1.9 percent in children, and the rate of death is 0.00 to 0.03 percent. Johnson then announced: “Statistically children are not dying from COVID.”
What Johnson failed to note, but the American Academy of Pediatrics does is that the hospitalizations are only from 24 states and New York City, and adds: “AL, NE, and TX data in this report are not current (cumulative data through 7/29/21, 6/24/21, and 8/26/21 respectively).”
To try to back up her claim further, Johnson complained about Oregon Gov. Kate Brown not wearing a mask at an event in Washington D.C. while kindergartners ate lunch outside at Capitol Hill Elementary School in Portland, Oregon.
Brown political advisor, Chris Pair, told the Statesman Journal that Brown was attending the LGBTQ Victory Fund’s 30th Anniversary Gala where attendees had to show proof of vaccination. Pair also said Brown remained masked during the event “except when giving her acceptance speech, eating or taking pictures with attendees.”
Johnson said she was not okay with the (supposed) “abuse that they are inflicting on the children in the state of Oregon.” Johnson’s “evidence” of the supposed abuse was a video tweeted by right winger Katie Daviscourt.
CHILD ABUSE: Kindergartners are forced to eat lunch outside in 40 degree weather at Capitol Hill Elementary School in Portland, Oregon.
— Katie Daviscourt🇺🇸 (@KatieDaviscourt) December 8, 2021
They sit on buckets to social distance from their classmates. pic.twitter.com/KqFcliTFYf
Newsweek notes the facts missing about the video:
It is also not clear how long the children were outside, or how frequent this practice is. Esther Omogbehin, the Regional Superintendent for Portland Public Schools, confirmed to Newsweek that the video does indeed show students from Capitol Hill Elementary School eating outside, under a covered area.
“We do not know when the video was taken. This week, for this particular school, lunch has been moved inside due to colder weather,” the superintendent said in an email Friday.
Johnson then told parents to remove their children from public school system, and then told “good God-fearing parents” to run for school boards of the same public school system. Johnson then asked her viewers to become “outraged at what is happening to our kids.”
(Sources: Newsweek, Abby Johnson/YouTube, Abby Johnson/Twitter, CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics, CDC, Vox, CDC, Katie Daviscourt/Twitter)