Howard County parents who relied on in-school vaccination clinics for their children\u2019s flu and COVID-19 shots will need to look elsewhere this fall. <\/p>\n
Parents and guardians recently received a \u201cHealth & Safety Updates\u201d<\/a> email advising them that \u201cdue to extenuating circumstances\u201d the school system would not be offering in-school seasonal flu or COVID vaccination clinics this year. <\/p>\n The school system encouraged parents and guardians to contact their child\u2019s pediatrician, look out for free clinics offered by the county health department or seek out a jab from a local pharmacy, retail store or urgent care facility. <\/p>\n Ana Maldonado had opted for her high school-aged children to receive vaccines at the in-school clinics because of the convenience. <\/p>\n But as soon as she found out the clinics were canceled, she went to a local pharmacy instead. <\/p>\n While Maldonado had a relatively easy time ensuring her children were vaccinated, she felt there wasn\u2019t enough communication from the school system about the change.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t even think parents know that the school system isn\u2019t doing the clinics this season,\u201d Maldonado said. <\/p>\n The school system previously used available grant funding to cover the cost of the clinics, said spokesperson Brian Bassett. But this year, it wasn\u2019t secured.<\/p>\n The cancellation of the clinics is the result of \u201can unfortunate series of events taking place,\u201d said Lisa M. de Hern\u00e1ndez, a spokeswoman for the Howard County health department.<\/p>\n In past years, the Maryland Department of Health partnered with the Maryland Partnership for Prevention \u2014 the state\u2019s adult immunization coalition \u2014 to coordinate the school-based vaccination clinics.<\/p>\n Accessing its immunization grant from the state health department, county health officials would provide the necessary funding to the school system to secure a vaccine vendor. The state health department drew on federal coronavirus pandemic relief funds. <\/p>\n But then those federal funding sources dried up, and the Maryland Department of Health ended its deal with the Maryland Partnership for Prevention. <\/p>\n Last year, the county health department provided $195,000 in grant funding to the school system for both flu and COVID shots, according to Board of Education of Howard County documents<\/a>. The previous year, the school system received $185,000 in grant money. <\/p>\n As of now, the school system\u2019s health services office has not made a decision on whether to have clinics next year, Bassett said. <\/p>\n Howard County students and their families who wish to receive the flu vaccine can do so at one of the health department\u2019s targeted community clinics. No registration is required. <\/p>\n The flu vaccine clinics are located in \u201dthe areas of highest need,\u201d de Hern\u00e1ndez said. <\/p>\n The first of at least 14 community clinics<\/a> takes place from 2:30-4:30 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 2, at Owen Brown Place in Columbia. <\/p>\n \u201cAnecdotally, I would imagine that we would get a higher number of people coming to the clinics,\u201d de Hern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cI would hope parents would still be interested enough and come to these clinics.\u201d<\/p>\n The changes come amid a changing landscape for COVID vaccines<\/a> in President Donald Trump\u2019s second term. A federal advisory panel last month declined to make specific recommendations for the vaccines, creating uncertainty about their availability and how they would be paid for.<\/p>\n Last month, Maryland Health Secretary Dr. Meena Seshamani sought to reassure state residents that vaccines for COVID-19 should be widely available, despite the federal government\u2019s shifting guidance over the vaccine\u2019s latest rollout. Seshamani issued a blanket prescription<\/a> for all Marylanders to receive the vaccine if they want it.<\/p>\n Maldonado suspects the vaccination rate will decline among the county\u2019s youths without the school-based clinics. <\/p>\n The cancellation, she added, \u201ctranslates into the current [Trump] administration not making it easy for children to get vaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Howard County parents who relied on in-school vaccination clinics for their children\u2019s flu and COVID-19 shots will need…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[17138,24288,243,163,521,85,46,13380,6137],"class_list":{"0":"post-52316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-back-to-school","9":"tag-covid","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-health","12":"tag-healthcare","13":"tag-il","14":"tag-israel","15":"tag-measles","16":"tag-vaccine"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}