COVID: Long Lines Of Kids, Parents At Pediatric Vaccine Clinic At Sonoma School
SONOMA (KPIX) - A school in Sonoma turned into a vaccination clinic Monday night as the effort continues to vaccinate those between 5-and 11-years-old.
There was a long line when the clinic opened with parents eager to get their kids vaccinated. More appointments are starting to open up as the supply increases.
The school was one of 5 pediatric vaccine clinics in Sonoma County during a 7-day span.
"Our family's gotten the vaccine. We believe in it and I'm just hoping this will stop us from having to wear masks and get us over this pandemic," says parent Teresa Lurie.
Sonoma County currently has 73% of its population 5 and older fully vaccinated.
But according to a new poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation a third of parents are waiting for real world data before vaccinating their kids. After this week, roughly 900,000 children are expected to be vaccinated nationwide.
"There are robust safety monitoring systems in place that are monitoring the data on a weekly basis and I anticipate that if there any concerns that they will be identified quickly and shared with the public," says Dr. Grace Lee with Stanford Children's Health.
Dr. Lee feels it's going to be essential to have as many kids vaccinated to protect them from a potential winter surge.
A recent UK study also looked at COVID and its impact on children. It found 1 in 7 kids suffer from long haul COVID with at least one symptom lasting more than a 120 days.
"It's been well recognized in adults but I think we're just starting to recognize it in children now," says Dr. Lee. "We know that it can happen even after asymptomatic infection and it's hard for us to predict who's going to develop it."
