From the use of pets or mobile restaurants to a prize raffle, every formula is valid in the face of the growing number of public schools that seek to attract as many students as possible
to get vaccinated against COVID-19 before the end of the present school cycle.
School districts from states like California to Michigan offer free tickets to graduation parties and deploy mobile vaccination teams on school grounds to encourage inoculation of students 12 and older, to ensure that they return to class vaccinated by the fall.
They even enlist students who have already received doses of the coronavirus vaccine to pressure their friends to do the same.
[
Moderna says its COVID-19 vaccine is 100% effective in adolescents 12 to 17 years old
]
The concern of the school authorities is that, once the classes are over, it will be difficult to get more students to be vaccinated and they will
not be able to achieve the long-awaited immunity of the herd
.
That effort was launched shortly after the authorization of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 12-15 years ago less than two weeks ago.
Modern pharmaceutical company assured this Tuesday that its coronavirus vaccine is "safe and effective" for the same group of people and therefore will request permission from the authorities for its emergency use
.
For now, there is no vaccine available for those under 12 years old.
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To date, about 14% of the 15 million children ages 12 to 15 in the country have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). ). Of the 75 million adolescents aged 16 and 17, only 34% have received a single dose while 22% have received two doses. The waiting time between the first and the second inoculation is three weeks.
But there are certain obstacles.
Depending on the state or even the county where the students reside,
the presence of the parent or guardian is mandatory to authorize the vaccine to a minor
, but many do not have that facility to be absent from work.
Another sector of parents is unsure whether to allow their children to receive the vaccine that was approved for emergency use only.
[
More than 50% of adults in the US are already fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the White House
]
In some cases, demonstrations in schools offering the vaccine have discouraged children who were already nervous about it.
Mission Bay High School in San Diego, California, is a clear example of mixed reactions among students.
"I don't understand," confesses Tatum Merrill, 14, accompanied by her friends outside a mobile vaccination clinic near her school.
“It was made very fast and somewhat suspicious.
And I feel like the number of COVID-19 cases has dropped
so if everyone has been vaccinated, there is no need for me to get one
. "
And while hundreds of universities across the country are asking for proof of vaccination for students to enter classrooms, it is unlikely that elementary and middle schools will be able to do the same in the fall.
Students from San Pedro High School in San Pedro, California, carry signs promoting COVID-19 vaccination among students.
AP
For now, public schools are trying to entice students to get vaccinated through the holidays and send information home about the safety of receiving doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In suburban Detroit, students in the Southfield district who prove they have received the vaccine are given a ticket to the graduation party valued at $ 80 in exchange.
That incentive has drawn criticism
because opponents say that rewarding those vaccinated could lead to harassment among students who have not done so.
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The Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in California, with about 600,000 students, plans to have its mobile immunization clinic visit each of the schools at least once before July 11, the last day of school.
With information from AP
