As all states are eligible for COVID-19 vaccination for residents 16 years and older, or have announced when they will open, teens are one of the newest groups competing to get a chance.
Children tend to have mild cases of COVID-19, although some have become seriously ill and died from the virus, it may help to get them vaccinated. Experts say vaccinating younger populations will also be key to herd immunity and the spread of the virus. Michigan’s recent COVID-19 boom has been fueled in part by outbreaks among school sports teams and a high case among ages 10 to 19, health officials said.
One ongoing effort in Franklin County, Ohio, has helped prioritize high school students and make the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine – the only one currently allowed for those as young as 16 – as easy as possible.
“It’s really important to think about the fact that teenagers do not live by themselves. If we try to target the whole community to lower the COVID rate so that we reduce the transmission, we can not ignore it. This young population , “the dr. Sara Bode, chief physician and medical director of the Nationwide Children’s Hospital’s Care Connection school-based health and mobile clinics, told ABC News. “We really have to make it an important part of the outreach, otherwise we’re just going to shift who becomes COVID and succeed, even if it’s symptomatic.”
Last week, the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, in Columbus, launched an initiative with the local health department to hold teen vaccination clinics in every public school district in Franklin County. Students 16 years and older attending a school that has collaborated with the hospital can enroll to receive the vaccine. They must have written or oral permission from their caregiver.
On the first day of the program, Wednesday, more than 600 students enrolled 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 the 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 with it, but it’s not a small business,” Bode said. “To ensure the quality and safety of our administration [the vaccine] is definitely an operation. ‘
Young adults (18-29 years) are likely to wait to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Although a pre-survey with school districts found that there was a great deal of interest in the community for teen clinics, Bode said, who believes the presentation of the vaccine at a trusted resource such as a school can help any vaccine- overcoming hesitation – as well as making caregivers feel more comfortable with their child to get the chance without them being present.
“Our first school district we went to has an 80% positive response rate that they would like to have their eligible teens vaccinated,” Bode said. “It has been very encouraging for us that families are interested in this, and I think they know and understand how important it is to give their teen a chance to get the vaccine.”
Many students who were vaccinated during the first days of the clinic felt happy that they were able to get the vaccine, which is still limited.
“A lot of my friends and other classmates were definitely excited to get the chance to be vaccinated, and a lot of people I know,” Greta James, 16, a sophomore at Thomas Worthington High School, told ABC News. “The people who could not were not yet 16, and they were really shocked that they could not get it yet.”
Many of the students said that they considered taking the vaccine dose as one step closer to normal life. For James, it certainly includes watching her family during the holidays and performing live theater again.
“It was so hard to film all of our shows this year, and I would love to perform for a live audience again,” she said. “It’s definitely one thing I really miss that COVID took away from me.”
Lilly McAdams, 16, a 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 it’s really going to 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 over the last few years, it still puts me at a bit more risk. Since I had the opportunity, it felt like a very good idea. . “
After they were fully vaccinated, McAdams said she was looking forward to spending more time with her friends.
“I have not been with another person outside of school for more than a year at this stage,” she said. “I’m also looking forward to actually getting a graduation because I know the class of 2020 got almost nothing, they didn’t even get a prom. And it looks like my class is getting both of those things.”
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 protect other people,” she told ABC News. “This is the same thing I feel about any other vaccine – if you can protect yourself from illness and if you get sick, you need to protect others from it, if you have the luxury, why not use it?”
The athlete with three sports also said that the vaccine will make her feel more comfortable because she cannot always wear a mask. Under the state mask mandate, face masks are only needed if they are off the field or the playing field.
After Camden Beatty, 17, received a vaccine dose on Wednesday, the junior at Thomas Worthington said other classmates who received it the next day asked him how he was doing.
“They asked me if it hurt, how long it took, how it felt,” he told ABC News. “Knowing that it didn’t really have an effect on me might have helped them.”
Beatty hopes that her senior year can return to normal, and that students should not sit down to lunch or three feet apart. He is also looking forward to seeing his extended family in Ohio more often.
“Family gatherings, we do not do it as before,” he said.
Last week, students walked the halls with “I was vaccinated for COVID-19” stickers and posted about it on Instagram, James said. As more students receive vaccine doses, she said she feels more comfortable being personal.
“We’re still in a pandemic, and it’s so real and very serious,” James said. “I just personally felt that my safety was not necessarily guaranteed to go back to school most of the day, but now that many of us have been vaccinated, things are starting to look a little safer now.”
A complete “return to normal” will take a while. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently recommends that students distance themselves 3 feet, instead of 6 feet apart, as long as masks and other mitigation measures are taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Once fully vaccinated, medical experts recommend that in most cases, people should continue to wear masks and social distances, as more of the population is being vaccinated.
Dr. Bode hopes to get the vaccine to every teenager who wants it, and to continue to run clinics once vaccines for children under 16 have been approved. most important part to keep the doors open.
“We’re just going to have a much easier time with less exposure, fewer quarantines, and the ability to just keep learning personally,” Bode said. “We know that this virtual learning environment is not going well, and we need to be able to manage it full time, personally, five days a week.”