For a change, there is good news to report. Even more remarkable, the good news comes from the federal government! Now that’s really something to cheer about!

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported recently that cancer mortality among children has fallen by nearly 25% over the last two decades. The editorial board of The Wall Street Journal tells us that cancer ranks among the top five causes of death for youth under the age of 20. While pediatric deaths from overdoses, homicides and firearm injuries have recently climbed, cancer mortality has been steadily declining for two decades, especially for younger children.

The death rate for leukemia, the most common childhood cancer, fell by 47% between 2001 and 2021. Progress for brain cancer—now the leading pediatric cancer killer—has been slower, but mortality has still decreased by 11% over the last decade. Thank improved treatments, including monoclonal antibodies and medicines that block enzymes that cause uncontrolled cell growth.

Naturally, progressives have found something to complain about in these statistics. They say that racial disparities in cancer deaths have increased. Mortality rates were roughly similar for whites, Hispanics and blacks in 2011. But then progress stalled for blacks and Hispanics while continuing for whites. By 2021 the death rate for white children was about 16% lower than for blacks and Hispanics.

One explanation may be that Medicaid patients lack access to premier oncologists and have to wait longer for appointments with specialists to get diagnosed. A Journal of the American Medical Association study last year showed that many high-quality cancer centers don’t accept Medicaid patients because of its low payment rates. Facilities with high Medicaid access also had low quality ratings.

“Despite a large increase in the number of Medicaid-insured patients, most factors that limit a hospital or physician’s participation in Medicaid have not changed,” the senior author noted. “These include low reimbursement, high administrative burden, and limited specialist participation in managed care organization networks.”

The same is true for ObamaCare. Not all health insurance is the same. Medicaid is the worst healthcare insurance you can have and ObamaCare is not much better. Both systems have poor access to the best doctors and the best hospitals. As long as payments from these insurance plans lag well behind other insurance, this situation won’t change.

Meanwhile, the Inflation Reduction Act will discourage drug makers from pursuing new treatment indications for pediatric cancers after receiving approval for adult patients since the price controls will de facto apply to Medicaid. The disincentive is especially great for small molecule drugs that have been critical to reducing pediatric cancer deaths.

This is still good news for children who can access the best medical treatment in this country. But it’s also exposing the deficiencies of the federal government-controlled healthcare systems of Medicaid and ObamaCare. No matter what the government wants you to believe, their healthcare systems are still inferior.

If you’re following the news lately, there are reports of increasing numbers of sick children in Chinese hospitals. Is this déjà vu all over again?

Allysia Finley, writing for The Wall Street Journal, tells us the World Health Organization on Nov. 22 said it is looking into media reports of Chinese hospitals overwhelmed by sick children. Chinese authorities attribute the surge to higher circulation of seasonal bugs like the flu and respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV. The reports have raised concerns about a potentially novel pathogen spreading in China and renewed suspicions about Beijing’s lack of transparency.

“It is not at all clear when this outbreak started as it would be unusual for so many children to be affected so quickly,” the International Society for Infectious Diseases’ Program for Monitoring Emerging Diseases reported. Should we be worried?

It isn’t surprising that respiratory viruses—suppressed by nearly three years of Covid lockdowns—would come back with a vengeance in China amid low levels of natural immunity. Children are especially susceptible to bugs their immune systems have never encountered, and there are hundreds of them. It’s also possible that lockdowns and mask mandates impaired children’s immune development, making them more vulnerable to viruses that usually cause mild cold- and flu-like symptoms. Regardless, China’s crowded hospitals are more evidence that there are far more dangerous pathogens than Covid for children.

What about in the U.S.? Public-health experts in the U.S. are raising alarms about hospitals being flooded by kids with Covid. A Nov. 21 story in Scientific American claims that children younger than 4 years old have “among the highest rates” of Covid hospital admissions because their parents haven’t gotten them vaccinated.

It’s true that hospitalization rates for young children are currently higher than for adolescents and young adults, but they are significantly lower than for seniors. Yet infants are predominantly being hospitalized—not toddlers—and many are also infected with other, more-dangerous respiratory viruses. Infants younger than six months aren’t eligible for Covid vaccines anyway.

Infant hospitalizations for RSV, a common-cold virus that can impair babies’ ability to breathe, are currently seven to nine times higher than for Covid. For toddlers, it’s 17 times higher. The Food and Drug Administration in July approved a monoclonal antibody by AstraZeneca and Sanofi that prevents severe RSV infections in infants.

Demand for the prophylactic has been off the charts, resulting in shortages and rationing. That goes to show that parents don’t oppose vaccines and medicines that protect children from actual menaces. They simply have a better understanding than condescending public-health experts of what those menaces are.

Finley says, “The public health and political left’s zealous promotion of Covid vaccines for children may stem from a well-meaning desire to protect them from minor discomfort. Ditto mask mandates, padded playgrounds and trigger warnings. But shielding kids from every unpleasant physical and psychological feeling isn’t realistic or healthy.”

Every doctor knows that germs can, in fact, be good in some instances. Exposure at a young age to bacteria and allergens reduces the risk of asthma, allergies and some autoimmune disorders. It’s also well-documented that children who grow up on farms or with pets are less likely to develop chronic immune ailments. Scientists posit that germs train a child’s immune system not to overreact.

This certainly suggests that school closures to “protect children” may not have been a good idea. Mask mandates may have also contributed to this current surge in respiratory illness. They were largely ineffective at stopping the spread of Covid, yet they reduced children’s exposure to a potpourri of germs that strengthen their developing immune systems. We are all aware of the downside of overprescribing antibiotics, which may alter the normal flora of the intestinal tract. This raises the risks of allergies, celiac disease, and even obesity.

Many well-meaning parents want to shield their children from all pain and discomfort. But these serve a useful purpose. Adversity builds character, resilience, and determination. Nowadays, however, many schools are eliminating homework and letter grades in the name of reducing stress. Academic requirements are being lowered by schools for the same reason, while instructors are directed to accommodate students’ anxiety. None of this is good for developing young minds and character.

Finley says, “Is it any surprise, then, that 47% of 18-to-34-year-olds say they’re so stressed most days that they can’t function? The problem isn’t that young people are overly stressed. It’s that they haven’t been stressed enough! Children were once taught that “sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Being taunted is difficult, but we can learn to shake it off. Now schools teach that mere ideas can be dangerous because they can cause discomfort. Better, they say, to avoid such threats altogether.”

When youngsters are eventually forced to leave their bubbles, they break down. Offices of mental-health professionals are teeming with psychologically fragile young people who have been protected their entire lives. Likewise, Chinese hospitals are flooded with sick children who have been sheltered by three years of lockdowns. Protecting kids from life’s troubles leaves them more vulnerable, not less.

If you read my last post, Real School Choice, you know how important school choice is to the future of many children, especially those from low-income families. School choice is the key for the children of these families to escape poverty and lead productive lives. But not everyone agrees.

The State of Illinois has just declared that teachers unions are more important than children. That’s the message they sent to 9,600 low-income children when they killed their scholarships to private schools. The Wall Street Journal editorial board says, “Sometimes the worst political scandals occur in plain sight, even if most of the press corps chooses not to notice. That’s what happened last week in Illinois, where the Democratic-union machine killed scholarships for 9,600 low-income children.”

The state and national teachers union made a priority of blocking an extension of the Invest in Kids program that provided a 75% state tax credit for donations to help families afford private schools. The unions claim the credit drained money from public schools, but public funding has increased nearly $2 billion since Invest in Kids began under former Gov. Bruce Rauner. Only 35% of Illinois children read at grade level, according to Wirepoints, so no wonder there are more than 20,000 children on the Invest in Kids waiting list.

Current Gov. J.B. Pritzker refused to help save the program, even for children currently benefiting from it. Those families will now have to find some other way to pay tuition. Empower Illinois, the state’s largest scholarship-granting organization, says it will seek private donors to cover tuition. But the most common donation was $1,000, and many of those smaller donors may disappear without the tax credit.

Gov. Pritzker is a billionaire, and his Pritzker Family Foundation could help. According to Crain’s Chicago Business Journal, the foundation has donated $8.3 million to Milton Academy, the Massachusetts boarding school Mr. Pritzker attended. It has donated $2.5 million to Duke University, according to Carolina Journal, and $100 million to Northwestern Law School, which has renamed itself in his honor. Invest in Kids is a bargain by comparison, requiring about $71 million for the coming year.

The WSJ says, “Illinois is now the first state to kill a major school-choice program. The scandal reflects the bloody-mindedness of the unions that want to snuff out even minor competition to retain their monopoly. And it reveals how little most Democrats care about the children they imprison in these failure factories.”

While most states are increasing the scope of their school choice programs, Illinois is killing theirs. This is not surprising since Illinois is a deep blue state controlled by the Democrats and Democrats are the strongest supporters of teachers unions. Don’t look to the White House for any help, however, since First Lady Jill is also a member of the teachers unions. President Biden has made it clear he will always be a friend of the teachers unions.

The only solution to this problem for residents of Illinois is to vote for Republicans, or vote with their feet by moving to red states that value school choice. Many Illinois residents have already made this decision as the following graphic shows. Illinois leads the nation, along with New York, in losing the most residents in the last census.