Windsor-Essex youth vaccination rate lags as public health looks to move the needle

At an outdoor pop-up clinic in downtown Windsor this week, newly vaccinated youth were looking forward to the future, and to things getting closer to normal.

"I'm most excited for to see my friends, go to school," said Jabriel Elnour, who is 13 and had just been given his second dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Twelve-year-old Anthony Pardo said he was looking forward to seeing his friends as well.

"I feel free now," he said after getting his final shot on Tuesday.

But local statistics show only half of their peers aged 12 to 17 are vaccinated with one or two doses, even though anyone in that age group has been eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since late May.

The low youth coverage rate is both a concern and a bit of a surprise for Windsor-Essex medical officer of health Dr. Wajid Ahmed, who wants to see all of the region's youth vaccinated before the school year resumes in September.

"Our adults in our community rolled up their sleeves very quickly to get the vaccine for themselves," he said last week.

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A downtown Windsor pop-up clinic focused on vaccinating those in the core had another aim, too — giving young people a shot in the arm. Anthony Pardo says a repeat of pandemic schooling isn't something he wants to see happen again.

Youth vaccination rate below Ontario average

According to statistics from the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit, more than three-quarters of residents 18 or older — 75.8 per cent as of Wednesday — have received at least one shot. Among youth 12 to 17, however, the rate is 51.3 per cent.

Provincially, the youth vaccination rate is at 61 per cent — nearly 10 percentage points higher than the Windsor-Essex rate.

The local public health unit and other partners and organizations have been operating pop-up clinics to lower the barriers to vaccination and boost the coverage rate within lagging segments of the population. And as of Wednesday, anyone can receive a first dose at one of the five mass vaccination sites without an appointment.

Tuesday's outdoor clinic was targeted at the downtown area and youth, said Laura Strathdee, manager of operations and logistics for Ontario Health and Erie Shores HealthCare, one of the partners behind Tuesday's event.

"We're actively planning with the health unit and community partners for more youth pop-ups. It is our mission for the summer to get the community through this."

If significant portions of the eligible youth population don't get vaccinated, that could lead to COVID-19 outbreaks this fall, and students could be sent to learn from home once again, Ahmed said.

"No one wants that, and we need to make sure that our children are getting the full two doses before they start school."

'Wicked problem'

People with questions about receiving the COVID-19 shot should connect with a health-care provider or someone who can provide expert advice, said Dr. Anne Pham-Huy, chair of Immunize Canada, a national coalition that promotes vaccination and education surrounding vaccines.

"I think there's almost fear of asking the questions, so that you're not perceived as you're against vaccines," she said.

It's not clear what role that barriers to vaccination — for example, parents having to take time off work to bring their kids to a vaccine clinic — are playing in the low youth vaccination rate, as opposed to reluctance to receive the vaccine itself.

But when looking at what's driving vaccine hesitancy, it's important to consider the community and what specific factors people are concerned about, she said.

"That's one thing in vaccine hesitancy, or when people have concerns about vaccines, is not to assume that everyone has the same issue," said Pham-Huy, a pediatric infectious diseases physician at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa.

Pham-Huy said vaccine hesitancy is known as a  "wicked problem" — a term referring to societal issues that are notoriously difficult to tackle — because of the many factors fuelling it, as well as the potential solutions.

But one reason boils down to risk perception. Some might think the risk of receiving a vaccine, and potentially experiencing side-effects, is higher than the risk of contracting the disease itself, she said. In the case of COVID-19, serious cases among children and youth have been much rarer than compared with adults.