Time is running out to get U.S. students vaccinated by fall

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School may still seem like a long way off for American students in the middle of the summer. But for many eligible people, time is running out for a back-to-school necessity: to be fully vaccinated against the coronavirus before school resumes.

Many districts in more than 13,000 districts nationwide, especially in the south and southwest, plan to start the 2021-22 school year well before Labor Day. Completing a course of Pfizer-BioNTechs vaccine, the only vaccine now licensed by the federal government for ages 12 to 17, takes at least five weeks for both injections to be given and full protection to be achieved. In many of these early-onset districts, students should receive their first dose within the next few days to be fully immunized on time.

In the Hamilton County School District in Tennessee, the first day of school is scheduled for August 12. From then on, students should receive their first injection no later than Thursday to be fully protected on opening day.

Cody Patterson, spokesperson for the district, which encompasses Chattanooga and serves 45,000 students, said that while vaccinations are not mandatory for the new school year, the district has made it clear to parents that we believe vaccination is a key strategy to keep the school open.

Mr Patterson said individual schools in the district would likely welcome students on a case-by-case basis if they were concerned about completing their immunizations.

Schools across the country closed and switched to online education when the pandemic took hold last year. But as the pandemic progressed, research showed elementary and secondary schools were not the primary drivers of infection.

Colleges are another matter, with a number of outbreaks seen on campuses. Many colleges (as well as some private high schools) require students to get vaccinated this fall. It’s harder for public colleges and high schools to do, for legal and other reasons, and a spokesperson for the American Federation of Teachers said the union was not aware of any imposing U.S. school districts. vaccinations.

It is only since May that a vaccine is available for 12 to 15 year olds in the United States. In many states, teens need parental consent to be vaccinated. No vaccine has yet been authorized for children under 12.

Michael Poore, the superintendent of the Little Rock School District in Arkansas, said the district has reached out to parents, worked with local health officials, and conducted an extensive awareness campaign on local and social media to persuade students and their parents to get vaccinated.

The district also held vaccination events at its 11 middle and high schools, he said, but only 300 to 400 of the districts, or about 11,000 eligible students, were vaccinated during the events.

School in Little Rock begins August 16, so to be fully protected by then, students should receive their first dose by Monday.

Vaccines were going to really push ahead in August, Mr Poore said, because if you haven’t received the vaccine and are near someone with the virus, you will need to be quarantined.

It is already too late for unvaccinated students to be fully protected before school starts in some places, like the Chandler Unified School District in Arizona, which reopens on July 21.

Kimberly Guevara, a spokesperson for the district, said the district informed parents when the vaccine was allowed for teenagers and told them how to get vaccinated, but that it was not going to force the vaccination on students.

Ms Guevara said she and her eligible family members were vaccinated as soon as they could.

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