Baltimore health leaders urge children to get updated COVID-19 vaccination

BALTIMORE -- With students back in the classroom, and fall and winter ahead of us, Baltimore health leaders are urging children to get vaccinated from COVID-19 and the flu.

Baltimore City's health department has the latest updated COVID-19 booster shots available for residents.

"There's a new dominant strain, and this particular vaccine is going to prevent that from being apart of your household, if you get it done today," said Rebecca Dineen, the assistant commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department.

The latest strain of COVID-19 reared its head in the spring and summer months, which prompted the Food and Drug Administration to approve the updated vaccine. 

Baltimore COVID-19 vaccination clinics

The Baltimore City Health Department announced a weekly free vaccination clinic to help residents, especially those as young as 12 years old, every Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Sacred Heart Church, located at 600 Conkling Street. 

The clinic is for anyone 12 and older with no appointments necessary.

"We don't want our children to miss school and getting a vaccine against COVID will help prevent them from missing school," Dineen said.

This clinic is offered for residents with or without insurance as a way to protect families and young people from COVID-19's most severe effects. 

Dineen said the updated vaccines are most important to those who may have never gotten the vaccine or any of the latest boosters.

"Here's the issue, you're far more likely to get long COVID, which is something none of us want," Dineen said. "It involves fatigue, it involves all kinds of organ damage. You don't want to get long COVID. So if you're not vaccinated, the chances of getting long COVID are twice as likely."

Here's a list of other Baltimore City vaccination clinics.

Impacts of long COVID

Researchers at Kennedy Krieger's Pediatric Post-COVID Clinic, which studied children with long COVID, found evidence of orthostatic intolerance, which causes children to become dizzy, have headaches or have fog brain as a result of COVID

"In this research study, we looked back at the patients we had seen to date and we looked at the incidents of something called orthostatic intolerance in children with long COVID," said Dr. Laura Malone, director at the Pediatric Post-COVID Clinic at Kennedy Krieger Institute.   

Aside from getting and staying vaccinated, doctors say there are remedies for children who contract long COVID.

"They can improve over time," Malone said. "We sometimes see the order of months to sometimes years, but sometimes we can better control of the symptoms by getting kids more functionable earlier than that with some interventions."