By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
The Doniphan County Health Department has begun offering the COVID-19 booster to teenagers that are 16 and older in northeast Kansas.
County Health Director Sheryl Pierce says that while teenagers, and also children, are not more susceptible to the virus, they could have COVID and not even know it
"Children even under the age of 18, they can be like little spreaders, they often don't have a lot of the symptoms, maybe just a little runny nose, maybe just a small headache that morning, and then actually have COVID and they're not aware of it," Pierce tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "And then they can spread it to more of the elderly, grandmas and grandpas, aunts and uncles that they're around."
Pierce says the department encourages everyone, but teenagers in particular, to come to the health departments walk in clinics to get the Pfizer booster or their primary shots.
Pierce says when the booster became available in the northeast Kansas county, the demand for the vaccine was high, getting about 15o people coming in every week, but she says that number has started to slow down.
"Our average is about 100 boost every week, and we are seeing the last couple weeks, we are seeing more primary doses given through our health department, so we're very, very, very pleased with that," Pierce says
But Pierce says the department still needs to increase the rate in the county, being substantially lower than both the rate in the United States and in Kansas.
Doniphan County is currently running between 30-35% of residents who have initiated vaccination.
Pierce says the health department will host another pediatric vaccine clinic this Thursday, for children and teenagers aged five to 17 years old.
Pierce says the third pediatric clinic the department held last Tuesday was successful for those that came for booster shots, but the number of new people coming to get the vaccine was underwhelming.
"We were hoping to get quite a few more vaccinated before our Christmas break," Pierce explains. "Because Thanksgiving, we've had a huge increase since Thanksgiving from all the gatherings, and now I'm fearful that we'll have that same thing happen with Christmas vacations."
But Pierce is still hopeful that even with more Christmas vacations coming up, more people will turn up Thursday.
"They know they're kids are going to be off school for a few days, that they'll come and get that vaccine," Pierce says.
The Doniphan County Health Department pediatric vaccine clinic will be held on Thursday from 3-6pm at the Health Department in northeast Kansas.