PARIS — With the federal Center for Disease Control endorsing COVID-19 vaccines for children between the ages of five and 11, SAD 17’s Health Services Department will hold its first vaccination clinic this Saturday at Oxford Hills Comprehensive High School.

“We’ll be doing a Pfizer clinic at the high school for all kids ages five and up,” explained District Lead Nurse Elizabeth Gallagher during a Zoom interview with her health services colleagues and the Advertiser Democrat. “We’re partnering with Stephens Memorial Hospital. It will be held in the auditorium at the high school on Nov. 13 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

“There will be a second one at the same place on Dec. 4, also from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., at the same location, for the second dose.”

The clinics at OHCHS this month that are available to younger students will mirror those held last spring when the CDC approved the vaccine for all children 12 and older.

SMH is also holding a by-appointment only two-week clinic for kids at the Ripley Medical Building that started Monday. That clinic will run through Nov. 19. Hours are 3 p.m. – 6 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Dr. Kate Herlihy, pediatrician with Western Maine Health, has been instrumental in providing medical care for SAD 17 for close to 20 years. Courtesy Brewster Burns

According to Dr. Kate Herlihy, SAD 17’s medical director and a pediatrician with SMH and Western Maine Health, the CDC has not yet provided guidance for retail pharmacies to administer vaccinations, but parents can call their regular pediatrician to schedule them for their children.

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“Their doctor’s office may refer parents to one of these clinics for now,” Herlihy said. “But pediatricians will continue to vaccinate children 12 and up at their office on a regular basis. We will incorporate the 5-11 group in with that as well.

“We’re getting lots and lots of questions about the vaccine. People are asking for details about the trials done by Pfizer, what were the number of kids enrolled, what is the incidence of myocarditis with the vaccine and what is the incidence of being ill, including myocarditis without the vaccine, but getting COVID disease instead. Also about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine. ”

Herlihy said the dosage for children 11 and under is one-third of what adults get, with a different concentration. SMH pharmacists will be on hand at the high school clinics to help draw up the vaccine.

“The trials really underscored the safety of the vaccine,” Herlihy said. “Getting the disease itself is much more dangerous than getting the vaccine, frankly. With the delta variant, children are more affected than with the original virus we saw in 2020. Children are much more likely to get it and much more likely to spread it. That’s been shown in studies as well.

“We have had to send unvaccinated kids down to Maine Medical Center to be hospitalized because of the virus.”

Parents may review data about Pfizer’s COVID vaccine and trials by visiting the CDC’s website, https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/index.html.

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Details about the vaccine clinics and eligibility were sent to all families of students last week via School Messenger and and posted on the district’s social media platforms. Principals were tasked with coordinating robocalls for families as well.

Testing

Along with other school districts in Maine, Oxford Hills started the year off preparing for pooled testing of both students and staff. Pooled testing is an opt in/parental-permission program that weekly tests groups of five to 25 people. If a pool is flagged with a positive result, each member in that pool is tested individually.

Pooled testing was launched on Oct. 12 at OHCHS. As of Monday morning there were 169 students and staff participating in about a dozen groups.

Testing expanded to include 68 students and staff at Oxford Hills Middle and 85 at Oxford Elementary schools during the first week of November and will be done every Tuesday.

This week Paris Elementary and Guy E. Rowe Elementary schools are starting the program and will conduct testing on Fridays. The district’s remaining elementary schools in Otisfield, Harrison, Waterford, Hebron Station and West Paris will begin pooled testing on Nov. 17 and repeat every week on Wednesdays.

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Pooled COVID test kits that volunteers use to collect swab samples every week at SAD 17 schools. Supplied image

The school district hired Bronwen Wiggin last September as its COVID-19 Nurse to oversee pooled testing. On testing day staff volunteers head out as “runners,” visiting the classrooms and offices to hand out the tests. Each person participating handles their own swab.

“We’re keeping the pool sizes to between 10 and 20 people,” Wiggin said. “At the high school there are some up to 18 now.”

“You can sign up at any point for the testing,” said Gallagher. “If a parent chooses not to sign their kids up now, they can do in a week, in two weeks. It’s a rolling enrollment so they just need to send us an email or sign up online. I don’t want anyone to think they’ve missed something or can’t sign up once it has started.”

“The biggest part is so we know the status of COVID in our classrooms,” Wiggin said. “The more people who participate the better. It helps prevent quarantine if they’ve been pooled tested and then identified as a close contact to an infected person in the school.”

The pooled swabs are sent out to a lab for PCR testing, which takes up to 48 hours for results to be returned. If there is a positive in the group, the individuals in that group each take a rapid test, with the results being returned in about 15 minutes.

“That person in the group who is positive quarantines for ten days, or from the time they experience symptoms of the virus,” Wiggin said. “The contact tracing is done here at the school, around that positive case, and close contacts are notified.”

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As testing expands to all schools, the School Board has authorized district administrators to hire four temporary employees to handle the contact tracing.

“The strength of pool testing is in the number of people in the school who are enrolled in it,” Herlihy explained. “The more the better. It’s non-invasive, it doesn’t hurt the kids. They actually do it themselves so it’s a positive experience for them.

“And it’s probably the one thing that’s going to keep schools open. It will keep kids in their classrooms and out of quarantine if they are exposed while in school. It is meant to identify people who have been infected before they show symptoms. Kids who are diagnosed early are much less likely to transmit it to other students in their classroom.”

If someone is not in pooled testing and a person in their class is infected, they will have to quarantine. Students who are vaccinated do not have to quarantine in the event of a school contact, as long as they are asymptomatic.

Parents and guardians can learn more about pooled testing at Concentric by Ginkgo (Conconcentricbyginkgo.com/schools).

Those interested in enrolling their children in pooled testing should email (b.wiggin@msad17.org) Wiggin or call her at 207-743-8914.

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