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Public health officials working with SLC schools, hospitals on Pfizer vaccine for adolescents

Posted 5/11/21

BY ANDY GARDNER North Country This Week CANTON – St. Lawrence County Public Health is working with hospitals and schools to ensure the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine is available to adolescents. County …

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Public health officials working with SLC schools, hospitals on Pfizer vaccine for adolescents

Posted

BY ANDY GARDNER
North Country This Week

CANTON – St. Lawrence County Public Health is working with hospitals and schools to ensure the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine is available to adolescents.

County Public Health Director Jolene Munger and Board of Health President Dr. Andrew Williams discussed the new development with the Board of Legislators during a Monday, May 10 Operations Committee meeting.

The FDA earlier that day approved the Pfizer vaccine for ages 12 to 15.

“We are working with our hospitals and superintendents to provide Pfizer to our adolescents,” Munger told the legislators. “We’re working with all of the hospitals to be able to have all the vaccinators with the HD to provide Pfizer ... we’re working with the state to get Pfizer and CPH has ultra cold storage. We can store it at the hospital and thaw it as needed for all the different clinics we are planning.”

The Pfizer vaccine requires ultra-cold storage, -94 degrees F.

Dr. Williams said that clinical trials indicate the Pfizer vaccine is “100% effective against COVID” in the 12 to 15 age range.

“As with their earlier trials, they didn’t see any significant safety concerns,” he added.

Dr. Williams said although the risk for ages 12 to 15 is “very low,” the risk of chronic illness as a result of COVID-19 infection “may be more common than we initially thought.”

He referred to a United Kingdom study that looked at people ages 2 to 11 who caught COVID. It found one in 10 of them still had at least one major COVID symptom five weeks after.

“We’re talking about persistent shortness of breath, chest pain, palpitations, arrhythmias” in children ages 2 to 11, Dr. Williams said.

Legislator Kevin Acres, R-Madrid, asked the doctor why he refers to studies from the U.K.

Dr. Williams said he reads medical science literature from around the world, and “honestly, when I look for the best data on this, the best data seems to be coming from the U.K.”

“It’s good to get a perspective from other countries that are taking a different approach,” he said, adding that he anticipates studies of similar quality to come out of the U.S. in the coming months, and he’d share it when it does.