Now that all states have extended the right to Covid-19 vaccines to everyone 16 and older, older teens are lining up for the shots – often with the help of high schools.
Shooting in the arms of 16- and 17-year-olds is “essential,” said Tifini Ray, the project manager for school health services at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
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That’s partly because the number of pediatric Covid-19 cases is on the rise in the US. The American Academy of Pediatrics said last week that about 88,500 new cases were reported in children – a 5 percent increase from previous weeks.
“Childhood cases really do reflect what’s going on in the surrounding community,” says Dr. Sean O’Leary, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus and Children’s Hospital Colorado. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the seven-day average of new Covid-19 cases is generally up slightly from the previous week.
While it is true that young people tend to have milder Covid-19 symptoms than older adults, children and teens can spread the coronavirus to older, more vulnerable groups. And they can get quite sick and even die themselves.
O’Leary, who is also vice chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Infectious Diseases, said vaccinating children can help keep schools safer. “While transfer in schools is low, it is not zero,” he said.
Hawaii, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont opened eligibility for anyone 16 and older on Monday – the last states to reach President Joe Biden’s goal of qualifying by April 19.
So far only a small percentage of 16 and 17 year olds have been able to take pictures. Data from the CDC indicates that less than 1 percent of those older teens are fully vaccinated.
It can be difficult for many parents – especially working parents – to find time to schedule vaccinations for their older teens and then leave work to get their kids to both appointments. Only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is approved for use in people aged 16 years and older. It is given in two doses three weeks apart. (Moderna and Johnson & Johnson recordings are allowed for adults 18 and older.)
That’s where communities step in to get the vaccines to children where they spend the most time: at school. Nationwide Children’s hosts high school vaccination clinics in Franklin County, Ohio, which continues to maintain the highest level of alertness in the state to the risk of exposure and spread of Covid-19.
Ray expects her team at Nationwide Children’s to have given at least a first dose to nearly 7,000 teens in the Columbus area in the coming days.
“Our schools are still in session, mostly in person,” Ray said. “It’s much easier for us to reach them in large numbers while having them in one location.”
High schools elsewhere are also opening vaccination clinics for eligible teens.
“We need to protect them so that they don’t pass the disease on to those who may be more vulnerable to the disease and its complications,” Dr. Tamara Sheffield, the medical director of Intermountain Healthcare’s Community Health and Prevention initiative in Salt Lake City, told KSL to NBC.
At least two districts in the Salt Lake City area have opened vaccination clinics in schools. Other states are following suit. Connecticut’s Waterbury Public School District offered hundreds of appointments for 16 and 17 year olds this week.
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One of them was Michael Albino. “It was really hard to plan one, so I’m just really glad I finally got it done,” Albino, a high school junior, told NBC Connecticut.
Pfizer has asked the Food and Drug Administration for emergency approval of its vaccine in children 12 to 15 years of age. A decision could come in the coming weeks.
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