Vital Animal
Menu

Lockdown, Kids, and Pets

Last Updated on January 19, 2026 by Will Falconer, DVM

Lockdown, Kids, and Pets

Striking data helps you help your pets

Amid all the drama and hype about the COVID-19 pandemic, some sterling unexpected data has come forth. If your goal is safer prevention for your animals, these data shout “CAUTION!”

This is eye opening hard data that the main stream media won’t be sharing with you. It’s totally counter to the current agenda of having you think the only way we can “get back to normal” lies with a new SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. That vaccine is being rushed in development as this is written and its safety concerns are many.

Much like your animals, children innocently respond to things that are given to them.

Or, in this case, withheld.

Fact: While the all cause mortality rate for seniors rose, the normal incidence of child mortality dropped significantly from March 2020 when the lockdown started.

the pandemic experience has brought on a surprising effect on this expected death rate among children. Starting in early March, expected deaths began a sharp decline, from an expected level of around 700 deaths per week to well under 500 by mid‐April and throughout May.1

Whoa.

They have an “expected level” from years of tracking these “all cause” deaths. Lots and lots of data.

And when lockdown started, that level dropped sharply, as this graph reveals:

Source2

That brown line falling so precipitously is 2020 data, deaths of people under 18 years of age. The other lines are the same age group for the years 2014-19. 

The Big WHY?

Maybe there are lots of reasons for this decline in child mortality as the U.S. locked down (these are US data throughout).

Go ahead, try to explain it, ye experts and statisticians:

Was this a protective effect of school closures? Were teenagers getting themselves into risky situations at a lower rate? No. There was very little effect among school age children or adolescents. [3] Virtually the entire change came from infants. Somehow, the changing pattern of American life during the lockdowns has been saving the lives of hundreds of infants, over 200 per week.3

Infants? Hmmmm. Infants are really a lot like your pets, so stay with me here…

What has changed during this period that might have such an effect? Are infant deaths not being recorded? Are parents taking better care of their families while working remotely and their children are not going to school? There are many possible hypotheses about the infant death decline. One very clear change that has received publicity is that public health officials are bemoaning the sharp decline in infant vaccinations as parents are not taking their infants into pediatric offices for their regular well‐baby checks. In the May 15 issue of the CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), a group of authors from the CDC and Kaiser Permanente reported a sharp decline in provider orders for vaccines as well as a decline in pediatric vaccine doses administered. [8] These declines began in early march, around the time infant deaths began declining.4

Oh oh. Those babes were not getting their routine shots!

But doesn’t that put them at even greater risk? From all the bad germs in their world?

Doesn’t look like it, no:

…as the saying goes, “the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” What no one would have predicted in advance of Covid19 is that the extreme lockdown response has produced a natural experiment that actually calls into question the very actions—widespread, mandated vaccines for all‐‐that the infectious disease and public health community have been pushing for years. We should mourn the deaths of the elderly Manhattan nursing home residents but also take heed of the hundreds of avoided infant deaths. Only with that kind of balance will we draw the proper lessons from the pandemic and the lockdowns that have followed in its wake.5

Kids. Pets. Vaccinations.

We’ve learned a few things over the years of watching vaccines in dogs and cats, and the parallels with children are striking.

Both are getting chronically ill in record numbers.

Children in the United States are experiencing a serious and historically unprecedented burden of chronic illness. American children display consistently poorer health outcomes than children in other wealthy nations, notwithstanding substantially higher per capita health care spending on U.S. children.6

Cancer is the most common cause of death in dogs, affecting approximately four million dogs per year.7

(The cancer quote above is 2015 data, and, judging from the comments I see regularly around Apoquel’s likely side effects, that number is now much higher).

While there are many variables, including pesticide use, toxic food, and neutering (especially early life neutering), the use of vaccines in children has ramped up wildly since the 80’s and pets that used to get vaccinated once or twice in their lives are now, far too commonly, getting annual vaccines.

Chronic disease is far easier to prevent than to cure.

Believe me when I tell you that conventional veterinary medicine has no chance of curing your chronically ill dog or cat, whether that’s ongoing itchy skin, diabetes, heart disease, thyroid disease, or the many other forms of lingering illness seen daily in homes and vet clinics.

This is the infant child/pet parallel to consider deeply:

Most chronic disease is caused by what appears to be well-meaning “prevention.”

Return to “normal?” Beware…

If your version of lockdown’s lifting includes friendly emails and postcards coming from your local vet that Sadie’s “overdue” vaccines can now be given, that should be greeted with cool research before you load up and comply.

Odds are, if Sadie’s already been vaccinated, she’s done. Duration of immunity is worthy of your deep understanding.

More importantly, the safety of vaccines should be a serious concern and you can follow the data for your pets and that of the children, hundreds of whom have been spared dying as an unintended benefit of pandemic lockdowns.

Let us know in the comments if you’re seeing a renewed push to bring your pets in for routine “prevention” and how you’re viewing that.

If that falling infant death rate helps you get clear on your next decision around vaccinations, you’re welcome. Kids, pets — they are the innocents who we are tasked with keeping from harm.

Vital Animal

Latest Topics

I believe Vital Animals can change the world

One shiny, well-balanced individual at a time.

It all starts with you, the wise animal caregiver, and the health choices you make for the animals in your care.

And that's why this site is here. Care to join us? We're a Vital Animal Pack.

I'm in!