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Dr. Ben Carson denounced the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine to children 5 to 11 years of age.
On Oct.31, Carson spoke with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo, and the former pediatric neurosurgeon likened vaccines for kids to “a giant experiment.”
“So this is really, sort of a giant experiment. Do we want to put our children at risk when we know the risk of the disease to them is relatively small, but we don’t know what the future risk(s) are,” he asked.
His comments are in response to the approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine for kids ages 5 to 11 years.
Carson himself contracted COVID-19 in November 2020 while serving as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under former President Donald Trump. He was one of several Trump staffers that suffered from the coronavirus while the former president was downplaying the seriousness of the virus and questioning the need for mass vaccinations.
Dr. Carson’s symptoms went from mild to severe. He was then treated with monoclonal antibody therapy, which he credits for his recovery. While he denounced vaccines for kids as unsafe and experimental, Carson used executive privilege to receive the treatment that had not been approved by the FDA. As he explained to FOX News, he
received a “special dispensation” from then-President Trump, who approved special treatment for him.In November 2020, NPR reported Dr. Carson’s stance that the vaccines need more testing before wide distribution. His comments a year later to FOX News restate his call for caution in using newly developed vaccines.