Little kids' vax slots fill fast in Lorain County

ELYRIA TWP. — Hundreds of local parents made a mad dash to sign up their children for COVID-19 vaccines late Tuesday as news broke that Pfizer doses for ages 5-11 had been given emergency authorization. "We are already vaccinating kids," Lorain County Health Commissioner David Covell said Wednesday morning. "We had vaccine in storage, so we've already begun that process." In anticipation of demand for the younger age range, the county health department ordered 2,400 doses in advance. Lorain County Public Health was among the first in the state to start rolling out shots. By 11:30 a.m., all of Wednesday's appointments there had been scheduled. Clinics are planned through the next week, with one running today from 10 a.m. to noon and 2-6 p.m. at the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Wellington. Others are planned for 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Lorain County Community College and Elyria High School. On Monday, kids clinics will be 9 a.m. to noon at The Anchor in Avon Lake and 3-7 p.m. at New Russia Township Hall. The kids vaccinations are scheduled alongside already-planned clinics for COVID-19 vaccine boosters and flu shots, said Deputy Health Commissioner Mark Adams. More are being added over the next three weeks, with sign-ups at loraincountyhealth.com. Two mass clinics for kids shots are being mapped out for the weekend of Nov. 20, he said. "People are rattled from COVID, from two years of it, so they're calling and saying they need to get the shot now," Adams said. "They're wondering if there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Yes, there is." The Ohio Department of Health held a news conference Wednesday morning to celebrate "a long-awaited step that brings us ever-closer to getting through this COVID-19 pandemic," as Director Bruce Vanderhoff put it. More than 6.4 million children in the United States have had COVID-19. In Ohio, more than 2,000 have been hospitalized and 15 have died since March 2020. Vanderhoff said that while children are far less likely than adults to become severely ill, they are not invincible. "We know that the existing COVID-19 vaccines have been remarkably effective in preventing severe cases of COVID-19 that result in hospitalization or death," he said. In extensive clinical trials, the smaller doses of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 5-11 proved almost 91 percent effective at preventing symptomatic infection, Vanderhoff said. They did so with no serious side effects, including zero cases of myocarditis, which is an inflammation of the heart. It has been seen on incredibly rare occasions in adults who received COVID-19 vaccines. It is more likely for myocarditis to occur after a COVID-19 infection, Vanderhoff said. Once injected, the vaccine does not stay around longer than about six weeks, said Dr. Patty Manning, chief of staff at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. After training the body to make antibodies that fight off the novel coronavirus, it dissipates. Because of its short lifespan, there are no long-term side effects, she said. Despite misinformation, there is "no evidence whatsoever" that fertility is affected by the vaccine. "If you're worried as a parent about long-term side effects, you really should be concerned about the risk of COVID," Manning said. "Even mild COVID in a child has the risk of long-term side effects. The vaccine does not." Dr. Michele Dritz of the American Academy of Pediatrics' Ohio chapter called the vaccine doses for ages 5-11 "a game changer." She also warned against the long-term complications kids can suffer from contracting COVID-19 instead of getting the vaccine. Even mild infections can cause bad issues down the road, she said. Dritz said she wouldn't recommend any vaccine she is unwilling to give her own children. "This is a vaccine that I've seen the research," she said. "I've watched the science. And I know it is both highly effective and safe." Dr. Michael Forbes, a pediatric intensive care specialist at Akron Children's Hospital, said "thousands and thousands" of children have been affected by the virus. He's cared for some of the worst cases. "We remember that first wave of COVID. We felt lucky in pediatrics because it skipped children to some degree," he said. But the delta variant was different, and hit children much harder. Forbes hailed the availability of the vaccine for ages 5-11 as "a fabulous moment for everyone" but said masking is still "a no-brainer, a non-issue" to stop the spread of other winter respiratory diseases such as flu, RSV and rhinovirus. Masking should continue through at least mid-December, Vanderhoff said. It takes five weeks from the first dose for the COVID-19 vaccine to become fully effective. Counting back from Christmas, that means kids should get their first shot no later than Nov. 20 if they want to celebrate the holiday without the need for masks, he said. Contact Jason Hawk at (440) 329-7122 or news@lcnewspapers.com.