Windsor-Essex youth vaccination rate lags as public health seeks to move the needle

Anthony Pardo, 12, said he was also eager to see his friends.

“I feel free now,” he said after getting his last shot on Tuesday.

But local statistics show that only half of their peers aged 12 to 17 are currently vaccinated with one or two doses, even though anyone in that age group has been eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since the end of May.

The low coverage of young people is both a concern and a bit of a surprise for Windsor-Essex Medical Officer of Health Dr Wajid Ahmed, who wants all young people in the area to be vaccinated before the resumption of the disease. school year in September.

“Our adults in our community rolled up their sleeves very quickly to get the vaccine themselves,” he said last week.

A pop-up clinic in downtown Windsor focused on vaccinating people in the center also had another goal: to give young people a bullet in the arm. Anthony Pardo says a repetition of schooling in the event of a pandemic is not something he wants to see happen again. 0:51

Youth vaccination rate lower than the provincial average

According to statistics from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, more than three-quarters of Windsor-Essex residents aged 18 or older – 75.8% on Wednesday – have received at least one injection of the COVID-19 vaccine until now. Among 12 to 17 year olds, however, the rate is 51.3%.

Provincially, the youth vaccination rate is 61%, almost 10 percentage points higher than the rate for Windsor-Essex.

The local public health unit and other partners and organizations have set up pop-up clinics to reduce barriers to immunization and increase coverage in lagging segments of the population.

Tuesday’s outdoor clinic was aimed at downtown and youth, said Laura Strathdee, director of operations and logistics for Ontario Health and Erie Shores HealthCare, one of the partners in Tuesday’s event.

“We are actively planning with the health unit and community partners other pop-ups for young people. It’s our mission for the summer to get the community through this, ”she said.

If a significant portion of the eligible youth population does not get vaccinated, it could lead to outbreaks of COVID-19 this fall, and students could be sent again to learn at home, Ahmed said.

“Nobody wants that, and we have to make sure our kids get the full two doses before they start school,” he said.

“Bad problem”

People with questions about the COVID-19 vaccination should contact a health care provider or someone who can provide expert advice, said Dr. Anne Pham-Huy, chair of Immunization Canada, a coalition that promotes immunization and education. surrounding vaccines.

“I think it’s almost scary to ask the questions, so you’re not seen to be against vaccines,” she said.

It is not clear what role barriers to immunization – for example, parents having to take time off work to bring their children to an immunization clinic – play in the low immunization rate of young people, as opposed to reluctance to receive the vaccine itself.

But when examining what drives the reluctance to vaccinate, it’s important to consider the community and the specific factors that concern people, she said.

“It’s one thing about reluctance to get vaccinated, or when people have concerns about vaccines, is not to assume that everyone has the same problem,” said Pham-Huy, doctor. pediatrician specializing in infectious diseases at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

Pham-Huy said the reluctance to get vaccinated is known as a “nasty problem” – a term for notoriously difficult societal problems to solve – because of the many factors that fuel it, as well as potential solutions.

But one of the reasons comes down to the perception of risk. Some might think the risk of getting a vaccine, and potentially experiencing side effects, is higher than the risk of getting the disease itself, she said. And in the case of COVID-19, severe cases in children and youth have been much rarer than in adults.