Sonoma County launches school-based COVID-19 vaccine clinics

Mason Keller had the perfect analogy for the pain he felt when he got the COVID-19 vaccine shot Tuesday.

“The shot felt like I forgot to wear green for St. Patrick’s Day and someone took the pinching a little too far,” the smiling seven-year-old said as he moved his arm up and down to ease the discomfort.

Mason, a student at Guerneville Elementary School, was among dozens of Sonoma County school children who received pediatric COVID-19 inoculations at the county’s first school-based vaccine clinic. The clinic was held in the school’s multipurpose room.

Mason’s sister Fionna, 7, also a Guerneville School student, got a little bit teary during her shot. But both seemed to appreciate the importance of getting poked, particularly Mason.

“It’s a shot for COVID-19 … it’s a disease that can sometimes kill people,” he said. “It’s less deadly on kids but it can still have consequences.”

The children’s mother, Jolene Keller got her second COVID-19 vaccination last May and said now her whole family, which includes her husband and an older son, are all vaccinated.

“I’m a little less worried, especially with them being around grandma,” she said, adding that their grandmother, who lives in Santa Rosa, picks the two children up after school and watches them during the week.

Tuesday’s clinic in Guerneville, which ran from 1:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m., was organized by the Sonoma County Office of Education and county public health officials. A separate clinic was held Tuesday at Jefferson Elementary School in Cloverdale, from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m.

More clinics are scheduled for this week in Santa Rosa, Occidental, Healdsburg, Petaluma and Windsor. They come less than one week after federal health officials authorized emergency use of a smaller dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for kids 5 to 11.

Dana Pedersen, the superintendent of Guerneville School District, said Tuesday’s clinic was the first of four opportunities for West County parents to get their children vaccinated. On Wednesday, a clinic will be held at Harmony Elementary School in Occidental and two more clinics are planned for next week at Brook Haven School in Sebastopol, she said.

About 40 people, mostly children, were signed up to receive COVID-19 shots Tuesday. Walk-ins and older children and adults were welcome, as clinic staff had about 250 doses of Pfizer vaccine available. Pedersen said clinic organizers hope to administer 250 doses at the three clinics Wednesday and next week.

“I’m excited, it’s a long-time waiting,” Pedersen said, adding that kids being inoculated today will be fully vaccinated in time for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

The school-based vaccine clinic sites were chosen with an eye on health equity, at schools with high rates of free and reduced lunch participation, lower vaccination rates and significant numbers of students whose primary language is not English.

Medical staff from West County Health Centers, the largest primary health care provider in the West County, were on hand to administer the vaccine, including pediatricians who helped answer any questions parents may have had about the safety of the vaccine.

In contrast to adult vaccine clinics, many of the kids who were inoculated Tuesday spent their obligatory 15-minutes of observation getting their faces painted, eating churros or contributing to an art installation outside the school multipurpose room.

The activities were organized by Raizes Collective, a Santa Rosa-based nonprofit that’s been part of the local, countywide effort to address the pandemic’s racial and ethnic disparities, particularly on the local Latino community. The virus has disproportionately affected local Latinos, who have experience higher rates of virus infection, hospitalization and death.

Gabriel Machabanski, health equity program manager for Raizes Collective, said the goal was to create a “safe, welcoming and engaging” space. He said that some in the Latino community, especially undocumented residents, often have a distrust of government institutions that stems from long-standing systemic racism.

Parents who themselves were vaccine reluctant are often even more hesitant about getting their kids vaccinated, he said. “We’re here to make them feel safe and welcome,” he said.

But Javier Montaño and his wife Mayra Montañno of Guerneville needed no convincing to get their sons Oscar, 8, and Cesar, 6, vaccinated. The couple, who are both vaccinated, found out about the vaccine clinic through ParentSquare.

“We got them vaccinated to create a safer environment for other kids and the community,” Javier Montaño said, speaking in Spanish. “And so this whole COVID thing can subside.”

Erin Duckhorn of Sebastopol got emotional when her daughter Charlotte, 7, received the shot with barely a wince.

“We’ve been waiting for this so long, she’s just as excited as I am,” Duckhorn said, her eyes growing misty. “I just think it’s our responsibility to our community, and it’s the only way we’re going to get back normal life — I just trust science.”

When asked what the shot was for, Charlotte responded with certainty and confidence, “COVID-19 is a virus that you can get. It can cause people to get sick and you can even die from it. And you gotta wear a mask.”

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.