Midland Health Setting Up Clinics to Get Students 12 and Older Vaccinated

Midland Health has teamed up with Midland Independent School District and pediatric doctors to get the vaccine to students 12 and older.

According to the Midland Reporter-Telegram, MISD will have clinics at several schools in Midland.

Clinics will be set up at all locations from 4:30-6:30, locations and dates are as follows:

• Abell Junior High - May 17, 2021
• San Jacinto Junior High - May 18, 2021
• Alamo Junior High - May 18, 2021
• Goddard Junior High - May 24, 2021
• Lee Freshman High School - May 25, 2021
• Midland Freshman High School - May 26, 2021

This is a totally optional clinic and not required.

“If parents do not want their students to receive the vaccine, there is absolutely no obligation,” said Katie Atkins, Chief of Staff for Midland Independent School District.

The FDA has declared that the Pfizer vaccine is safe for children ages 12-15 after testing was completed on over 2,000 teen volunteers between those ages.

“There’s nobody 12 years and above who’s not eligible to get the vaccine,” said Midland Health President Russell Meyers. “And there’s really no reason not to proceed to get it. It’s in your own best interest and your family’s and the community’s to stop this virus where it is."

Chief Medical Officer of Midland Health, Dr. Larry Wilson said that the older a person is, the more likely they will get more sick from it, along with people with underlying conditions.

“But there’s a couple of things that are really important to keep in mind,” said Dr. Wilson. “An asymptomatic carrier of the virus can spread the virus, and if there’s other people that they get around, that haven’t been vaccinated and are in a risk category -- and even another child that’s in a risk category could potentially catch the virus from them and no one would know that they had the virus because most children don’t get sick or don’t get very sick. So that’s a really important point. Another one that we have to keep in mind is the risk of variants developing. The virus in replication, when it gets into the body and it reproduces itself over and over again, that’s when -- while it’s reproducing itself -- that variants develop; that’s when genetic mutations occur. So, if we suppress the amount of virus in the community, we’re reducing the likelihood that unusual variants are going to develop or high-risk variants are going to develop. And we have basically a pool of children, unvaccinated, spreading the virus amongst themselves, not getting very sick but able to produce a mutation that can become much more serious; we run a great risk. It’s not unexpected that when Britain was having a spike, the British variants developed. When India is having a spike, a double variant developed in people there. … Everything we can do to stop virus replication and virus spread in the community, even among those at low risk of getting very sick from it, reduces the likelihood of having complicated problems coming up downstream.”

Once school is over, pediatricians will more than likely take over the vaccinations of teenage children.

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