Chicago Clinic At The Forefront For Vaccination Of Children

The vaccination drive for kids has begun all over the country. Chicago`s Esperanza health Center which is a nonprofit organization is leading in kids’ vaccination. As per the data the health clinic has given out more than 10,000 shots of the vaccine to the kids this week.

Chicago Clinic At The Forefront For Vaccination Of Children

Veronica Flores who is the manager for Esperanza health center stated that the first step to getting kids vaccinated is their parent’s trust in you. She stated that when the pandemic was started last year this was one of the first clinics to begin testing. During the peak of the pandemic, Esperanza was responsible for 50% of the testing in the city alone.

Another great advantage for the clinic is that people working here are bilingual and most of the community here is Hispanic. This helps the people as well as the health care center staff to communicate much easier. It has also been said that the clinic was paying for the patient’s taxi charge as well for getting vaccinated.

This built trust among the people in the area for this clinic and when kids vaccination was announced most of the people turned up to Esperanza for getting their kids vaccinated. Dr. Mark Minier who works at this clinic stated that the clinic had organized a free seminar for the parents explaining to them the need for getting their kids vaccinated. The team stated that the dose given to the kids is 1/3^rd as it has been given to any adults and there are no major side effects from this as well.

The side effects which might come with the vaccines are tiredness, headaches or pain on the arm which can be easily cured by some medicine. Minier also stated that since covid has started around 2 million kids have been hospitalized in the US alone and among them, 170 kids passed away. Even though the number seems small it is still too many when a vaccine can save your life.

Cynthia Galvan who bought her 10-year old for vaccination stated that there are 10 people in the house and her son was the only one who wasn’t vaccinated. Due to this, there was a constant fear as everyone had to go to the office and outside and her son might get the virus from them. However, now that her son is vaccinated, she is at relief and states that she will still follow mask and social distancing when outside.

Chicago is seeing a vaccination rate of 58% in kids which is significantly higher than the national average. The current national average is at 50% for fully vaccinated people. Allison Arwady the health commissioner stated that the key player in getting kids vaccinated are the parents. In a poll, it was stated that 30% of the parents are not yet ready to get their kids vaccinated and with winter coming up this could be an issue for the US.

In winter the immune system of the body is at its weakest and this makes it easy for the virus to spread. Chicago has given an off day on Friday for schools so that kids can get easily vaccinated.

Many parents have thanked the school for this effort as kids won’t have to miss any class time for getting a shot and can also rest up on the weekend to get over any side effects. Clinics like Esperanza have also set up many toys for the kids at the vaccination tent as they are afraid of the injection. There are many doctors and health care agents for making sure everything goes well.