Despite a scramble to find a supply of vaccine and a last-minute need for Oak Park Department of Public Health employees to drive around the state picking up vaccine doses, about 2,500 children aged 5 to 11 received their first doses of the pediatric COVID-19 vaccine last week, according to officials.
The Oak Park Department of Public Health, Oak Park Elementary School District 97 and others started planning the event around Oct. 25, said Theresa Chapple-McGruder, director of the public health department. That was on the cusp of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s expansion of the emergency use authorization for the Pfizer vaccine for children on Oct. 29.
“It was a Herculean task,” she said of the organizing effort, which included nine clinics over five days, Nov. 9-13, at eight schools in School District 97, plus an event Saturday at Oak Park and River Forest High School aimed at Oak Park students who attend private schools or are home-schooled.
Staff from many local government departments and agencies, including the police, fire and community service departments, jumped in to help with the organizing, Chapple-McGruder said.
Amanda Siegfried, a District 97 spokesperson, said the district provided space and logistical support for the clinics and the health department provided the vaccines.
“We had a number of staff volunteer at each school so kids could see their principal, and sometimes their teachers (at the event),” Siegfried said. She added that some younger children brought blankets and stuffed animals to the clinics to help them cope with their fears of getting a shot.
The health department solicited and screened 75 licensed health professionals, mostly doctors and nurses, to administer the shots, Chapple-McGruder said.
Health departments such as Oak Park’s can typically order vaccine from the state of Illinois and receive it in about three to five days, Chapple-McGruder explained, but her October order of pediatric COVID-19 vaccines hadn’t arrived by Nov. 5, just days before the vaccination clinics for children were due to start.
Other health departments were cancelling vaccination clinics due to lack of vaccine supplies, but Chapple-McGruder said her staff started asking clinics, pharmacies and others for whatever they could provide.
“The DuPage County Health Department gave us 320 doses, and a rabbi in Chicago gave us 50,” she said. “We just pieced together what we could grab. A woman named Omayra Giachello at the Illinois Department of Public Health was really working hard trying to help us.
“On Monday, our employees drove around the state picking up vaccine doses. It was quite a weekend.”
The next day, Nov. 9, the clinics opened up at Lincoln and Beye elementary schools to vaccinate the 5- to 11-year-olds. That was followed by clinics at other schools over the next days.
Asked what impact the vaccinating of children aged 5 to 11 will have on the Oak Park area, Chapple McGruder said, “It’s going to be huge.”
In any given week, she said, 30% to 40% of COVID-19 cases in Oak Park have been among children too young to be vaccinated. Their cases, plus those among their parents, including breakthrough cases in vaccinated parents, make up 60% of total cases in the area, she indicated.
“So I think this will change the story of the pandemic in our community, and we’ll be down to moderate to low levels of transmission,” she said.
