WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — It's been less than a week since the School District of Palm Beach County launched its latest effort with the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, setting up vaccination sites for the pediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
So far, the Health Care District has provided 600 pediatric doses at district sites. Since last Thursday, 60 pediatric doses of the vaccine were administered at a Lantana clinic, and 200 pediatric doses were administered at two schools.
Infectious disease specialist Dr. Kleper De Almeida said more still needs to be done.
"I think that we'll need much more of these vaccines to hit our scores in order to cover our population and be effective," he said.
De Almeida believes the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective for children between the ages of 5 and 11 and said it's a message that he's making sure to share.
"The message is that the COVID vaccine is at least as efficacious as the measles vaccine and safer than the polio vaccine," he said.
Still, some parents said it's not a step they're willing to take when it comes to kids.
"I would never give it to them at all because I don't believe we have enough time to realize what the side effects are going to be in the future," Olivia Cabrera said.
While there is no vaccine mandate for students, the Halth Care District will have a vaccination site at Hagen Road Elementary on Wednesday morning, followed by a second site at Forest Park Elementary School in the afternoon.
