Given that all states have opened or announced when they will open, eligibility for COVID-19 vaccination for residents over the age of 16, adolescents are among the last groups fighting to get a shot.
Children tend to have mild cases of COVID-19, although some have become seriously ill and died of the virus, so vaccination can help protect them. Vaccination of younger populations will also be key to achieving herd immunity and limiting the spread of the virus, experts said. Michigan’s recent increase in COVID-19 has been partly fueled by outbreaks among school sports teams and a high rate of cases among 10- to 19-year-olds, health officials said.
An ongoing effort in Franklin County, Ohio, has helped prioritize high school students and make getting the two doses of Pfizer vaccine – the only one currently authorized for 16-year-olds – as easy as possible.
“It is very important to think about the fact that teenagers do not live alone. If we try to target the entire community to reduce the COVID rate so we can reduce this transmissibility, we can’t ignore this young population, Dr. Sara Bode, primary care physician and medical director of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Connection Care, told ABC News. School-based Health and Mobile Clinics. “We really need to be a significant part of that activity, otherwise we will only change who receives COVID and transmits it, even if asymptomatically.”
Last week, Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus launched an initiative with the local health department to have vaccination clinics for teens in every public school district in Franklin County. Students aged 16 and over who attend a school that has collaborated with the hospital can register to receive the vaccine. They must have the written or verbal consent of their caregiver.
On the first day of the program, Wednesday, more than 600 students signed up to receive their first dose of Pfizer at Thomas Worthington High School. The program aims to expand to more sites and administer both doses of vaccine between 12,000 and 15,000 students over a six-week period.
“It’s really important to think about these critical ways we can be creative, but it’s not a small business,” Bode said. “Ensuring the quality and safety of the way we manage [the vaccine] it is certainly an operation. “
Young adults (ages 18 to 29) are more likely to wait to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Although a preliminary survey of school districts found that there is a strong interest in the community for adolescent clinics, said Bode, who believes offering the vaccine to a trusted resource, such as a school, can help overcome any hesitation. make the caregivers feel more comfortable when their child gets the shot without them being present.
“Our first school district we went to had an 80% positive response rate to which eligible teens would like to be vaccinated,” Bode said. “This has been really encouraging for us that families are interested in this and I think they know and understand the importance of getting their teens to get the vaccine.”
Many students inoculated in the early days of the clinic felt fortunate to receive the vaccine, which remains in limited quantities.
“Many of my friends and other classmates have certainly been thrilled to be vaccinated, and many people I know have been vaccinated,” 16-year-old Greta James, a student, told ABC News at Thomas Worthington High School. “People who couldn’t were not yet 16 years old and were really bothered by the fact that they still can’t get it.”
Many of the students said they felt that getting the dose of the vaccine was a step closer to returning to normal life. For James, this includes seeing his family safely during the holidays and playing live theater again.
“This year has been so hard to film all our shows and I would love to sing again for a live audience,” she said. “Certainly this is something I really miss that COVID took it from me.”
Lilly McAdams, a 16-year-old senior at Worthington Kilbourne High School, already had an appointment in Springfield, about an hour away, before she could be vaccinated at nearby Thomas Worthington last week.
“I know this will really determine social availability in the next few months,” she told ABC News. “And I also have asthma. I’ve had it all my life. It’s gotten better in recent years, it puts me at a slightly higher risk. So, since I had the opportunity, it seemed like a really good idea.”
Once fully vaccinated, McAdams said she is looking forward to spending more time with her friends.
“I haven’t met another person outside of school in over a year at this time,” she said. “I’m also looking forward to graduating, because I know the 2020 class didn’t get nearly anything, they didn’t even get a ball. And it looks like my class gets both.”
Ella Brown, 17, a senior at Worthington Kilbourne, was among the first to receive a dose of the vaccine at the clinic on Wednesday.
“I wanted to be able to protect myself and other people,” she told ABC News. “It’s the same thing I feel about any other vaccine – if you can protect yourself from getting sick and if you get sick, protect others from getting sick, if you have that luxury, why not take advantage of that?”
The sportswoman with three sports also said that the vaccine will make her feel more comfortable, because she is not always able to wear a mask. Under the state mask mandate, facials are only required when they are off the field or playing field.
After 17-year-old Camden Beatty received a dose of the vaccine on Wednesday, the junior at Thomas Worthington said other classmates receiving her the next day asked him how he was doing.
“They asked me if it hurt, how long it lasted, how it felt,” he told ABC News. “Knowing it had no effect on me, you might have helped them.”
Beatty hopes his senior year can return to normal, and students don’t have to be 6 feet away at lunch or 3 feet away in class. He is also looking forward to seeing his extended family in Ohio more often.
“Family reunions, we don’t do as we did before,” he said.
Last week, students walked down the halls wearing “I was vaccinated for COVID-19” stickers and posted about it on Instagram, James said. As more students receive doses of the vaccine, she said she feels more comfortable being in person.
“We’re still in a pandemic and it’s so real and so serious,” James said. “I personally felt that going back to school most of the day, with everyone there, my safety is not necessarily guaranteed … Now that many of us have been vaccinated, things are starting to seem a little safer now.”
A complete “return to normal” will take some time. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that students distance themselves from 3 feet instead of 6 feet as long as masks and other mitigation measures are taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Once fully vaccinated, medical experts advise people to continue wearing masks and social distance in most cases, as more people are vaccinated.
For her part, Dr. Bode hopes to receive the vaccine for every teenager who wants it and continue to own clinics once the vaccines are licensed for children under 16. As schools across the country return to personal learning, vaccination will be a key part of keeping the doors open.
“We will have a much easier time, with fewer exposures, fewer quarantines and the ability to continue to offer this learning in person,” Bode said. “We know that they are not doing well with this virtual learning environment and we need to be able to bring them back to full-time learning, in person, five days a week.”