Connecticut parents eager to get teens COVID-19 vaccines as eligibility expands; school-based clinics for older students could be an option

With Connecticut teens becoming eligible for COVID-19 vaccinations beginning Thursday, Andrew Graceffa and his wife are planning to get their oldest daughter Lucia, 17, vaccinated as soon as possible.

“Having her vaccinated would definitely give us peace of mind,” Graceffa said of his daughter, who has special needs and has dealt with a unique health condition since her birth. “We’ve been very vigilant about protocols over the past year-plus, but we’re excited to have a slot opened up.”

Like many Connecticut parents, the Fairfield couple is balancing their children’s mental health and need for socialization with school peers and maintaining safety protocols. While Lucia goes to school in another town and does not socialize as much as other teens outside of classes, she spends a lot of time with her younger sisters, who are 12 and 15.

The only vaccine that has been FDA approved for teens ages 16 and 17, like Lucia, is Pfizer’s. Other vaccine producers are making progress in clinical trials on younger children, but approval is still months away. Medical experts and school officials say parental consent remains a determining factor in how many minors will actually receive the shot.

Once the state allows teens 16 and up to become eligible for the vaccine with their guardian’s consent in April, Connecticut Children’s will immunize its highest-risk patients — including those with sickle cell anemia and cancer — within that age group, using doses allocated for that purpose by the state Department of Public Health, said Dr. John Schrieber, division head of infectious diseases at the Hartford hospital. After that, Connecticut Children’s will have to see “what the state wants to do” to immunize the broader population of children.

“The state gives us vaccines. We don’t just get them,” he said.

At a news conference Thursday, Connecticut Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said the state is also in the process of dedicating clinics for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Regarding 16- and 17-year-olds, Geballe said Connecticut is getting more doses of the Pfizer vaccine starting this week, and officials expect that number to continue increasing. But he added that teenagers and young adults without comorbidities are at low risk for severe illness from COVID-19, “so that’s a particular group that we’re going to ask to maybe not rush in the first couple days to get appointments.”

“We’re not going to be setting up dedicated clinics in the first days for high schools or colleges for example, but as we get later in the month of April and May, we will look to provide more dedicated access,” he said.

It will likely be the case that minors will need to have a guardian present to get the shot, Geballe said.

Patrice McCarthy, deputy director of the Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, said at the moment, school districts are focused on finishing up vaccinations for staff.

For students 16 and older, “I know there has been some discussion among superintendents of the possibility of health departments putting pop-up clinics at the high school, for example,” she said. However, “I think there are certainly issues around parental permission ... and making sure the family is aware and has provided permission.”

Karen Mullaney, a mother from Hebron, said she may not wait for her 17-year-old daughter’s high school to figure out vaccination plans. While Mullaney and her husband are fortunate enough to work from home, their daughter, who plays to varsity sports and works in a Glastonbury restaurant, is more “out and about.”

“She’s very good about wearing her mask, but I don’t know that her friends necessarily are,” she said. “I’m afraid that she’s going to bring it back into our house. That’s what I’m concerned about. ... We’ve come this far. We’ve isolated for this long. We don’t want to end up getting it now.”

Mullaney said she and her husband discussed getting vaccinated with their daughter, who agreed it was important to do so.

“Since [the pandemic] started, we’ve discussed with both of our kids that this is serious, and you need to be on top if it,” she said. “That being said, teenagers are not actually the best group for making good decisions, so that’s where the risk comes in.”

In East Hartford, Superintendent of Schools Nathan Quesnel said the district is starting preliminary conversations with health care providers about offering the vaccine to students 16 and older. While the district would encourage families to allow their children to receive the vaccine, Quesnel said parents’ decisions must be respected.

“We’re going to be encouraging them to do this, but this is a parent’s prerogative,” he said. “We respect our parents and our families and the choices they make. That being said, the more kids that are vaccinated in our schools, the more we can ensure more kids won’t get sick.”

With the B117 coronavirus strain that originated in the U.K. becoming more common in Connecticut, Dr. Tom Murray, the associate medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Children’s Hospital, said studies are showing that particular strain can make even young people “quite sick.”

“That is a strain that does spread more rapidly than some of the earlier strains ... especially as we open up the state. If you have a teenager who is out working, who is out socializing with their friends — often without a mask — there is some increased risk in some of their behaviors,” he said. “In thinking about the risks and benefits for vaccination, the benefits really will outweigh the risks.”

Speaking about all coronavirus strains, Schreiber, the infectious disease expert at Connecticut Children’s, cautioned against the idea that young adults and teens do not need to get vaccinated just because they may not be as likely to die of it as the elderly.

“We have young people who are not feeling well for months after getting a mild case of COVID. They’re tired, they’re short of breath, and they’re not normal,” he said. “We’re also worried about whether there are neural developmental problems in children who were infected at a young age.”

He said a small number of children infected with COVID-19 are also becoming sick with a “very unusual” disease called multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children, causing them to end up in the ICU, some with heart damage.

Schreiber said he is aware that some parents may feel hesitant to vaccinate their children against COVID-19, given widespread misinformation about the pandemic and the shots.

“It’s our job in the health care community to be honest and be straightforward, and tell the facts to people,” he said. “That’s what I do when I meet with parents and families. And then they have to make their own decision.”

Amanda Blanco can be reached at ablanco@courant.com.