Recent Toledo graduate Nicholas Marty has a fear about the pandemic. And it’s one not many of his peers are likely thinking about.
"There's a sense that, since my generation are in their 20s, since we don't get as sick from this virus (COVID-19), there might be less of a perceived need for (the vaccine)," he told The Chronicle. "I think the biggest thing, from talking to people in my class and talking to my friends, is that there's a perceived sense of invulnerability, so why not even get the vaccine?"
A student representative on the Toledo School Board, Marty, 18, aired those fears to the board in a 20-minute departure speech filled with, at times, rosy musings about his time at school.
Toledo High School was one of many rural schools that temporarily went back to remote learning this last month due to elevated caseloads.
“My concern is that, since we just had to close down the high school, unless something changes dramatically with how people get the vaccine, I think that’s going to be a constant worry with the future,” he said.
With the Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction (OSPI) guaranteeing that public school districts will offer full-time, in-person learning this fall, education leaders are grappling with plateaued vaccination rates, getting eligible students vaccinated and how to address starting another school year in the pandemic.
So far, 406 — or 7% — of Lewis County children ages 12 to 17 have been fully vaccinated, which is less than half the state’s average rate on vaccination in that age group. Though the supply of vaccinations is already widely available, some health experts believe the eventual approval of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine and expanded vaccinations to lower age groups might improve the state’s sluggish rates.
Part of that response is outreach.
On Wednesday, Washington state health leaders and Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal were panelists on a COVID-19 vaccination webinar hosted by two Washington state students. During the presentation, Reykdal told families and attendees rather plainly that vaccines won’t be required for public school staff and students this fall.
“The simple message for families is there’s no mandate in school that we anticipate this next year for students or staff, which is why it’s so important that if you are eligible to vaccinate, please do so,” he said. “It’s just a game of numbers … We all have this community contribution, we all have this thing we can do for each other.”
Reykdal said the return to in-person learning this year has largely been marked with low transmission rates, mostly due to schools closely following state and federal health guidance, including wearing masks and social distancing.
Dr. Scott Lindquist, the Washington state Department of Health’s acting state health officer, said there have been 237 outbreaks and more than 900 cases confirmed in schools since instruction began last fall, but these outbreaks have largely been minimal and caused by activities outside the classroom.
“That means that 70% of these outbreaks were about two to three cases, showing us that the controls put in place by schools and school districts really controlled these outbreaks. They’re not monster outbreaks. And, to be quite frank, the largest percentage of these outbreaks were adults in the school setting,” he said.
April saw the largest number of outbreaks throughout the school year. But Lindquist, who had his child take in-person instruction this year, said he feels like it’s overall a very safe environment for staff and students, especially if they’re vaccinated.
Public schools will more than likely start school this fall the same way they ended it, but Lindquist said Washington state’s June 30 reopening date might bring with it more opportunities to ease restrictions for public education.
But the pandemic isn’t over.
“This pandemic has gone through four waves at this point. We have just come down the backside of the fourth wave, but we’re at higher levels than we have ever been, except for last winter. These are pretty extreme levels. It’s still going to require a lot of masking, social distancing and increase in the vaccination,” Lindquist said.
JP Anderson, director of Lewis County Public Health and Social Services, said the county has been busy promoting vaccination among its general population and they haven’t yet established metrics for where they’d like to see youth vaccination by the fall.
“I think, generally, we’d like to think the more students that are vaccinated, the more likely schools are going to be able to remain open full-time, in-person and without outbreak concerns. The more students are vaccinated, the more safer we believe schools will be,” he said.
The county has been working to engage with families to dispel myths surrounding the nascent COVID-19 vaccine, which has been found to be overwhelmingly safe during its emergency use authorization.
It was recently announced that pediatric clinics will see a reimbursement for their work on vaccination education, Anderson said.
“Our plan at this time is to work really closely with pediatricians to do all we can to get vaccines available to them and to be in partnerships with them,” he said.
Anderson said the lag they’re seeing in youth vaccination is similar in scope to what they’re seeing among the broader population.
Dr. Maria Huang, pediatrician with Northwest Pediatrics, has been doing breakout presentations and vaccine education with local school districts in Thurston and Lewis counties. She said most of the concern for parents and families is they feel they just don’t have enough vetted information on the shot.
People also approach her with questions about infertility, distrust of new vaccines and worries about the long-term side effects. She always responds by saying the vaccine is completely safe for all current eligible age groups, and has been backed up by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“There are people who are open to the information and welcoming, and there are people who are not. It’s been pretty eye-opening, just seeing how the public has embraced the COVID vaccine,” she said.
Over the last two decades, Huang said, there’s been a mass decline of vaccination rates nationwide and locally. This has been aided by misinformation that spreads online at an alarming rate — sometimes much quicker than vetted, reliable information.
“That’s really concerning because we are seeing pertussis, measles, mumps — these are outbreaks we weren’t seeing before when most of our population was vaccinated and we’ve had herd immunity, but over the last two decades we’ve seen much less vaccination rates,” she said.
With the release of the COVID-19 vaccine, Huang said there was also an immediately noticeable plateau, which still lingers today.
“I think my biggest concern is when I talk one-on-one with families, most of their concerns are anecdotal,” she said. “I think the community sees what they want to see in their social circle, but I think the pandemic has really shown us that we really need to band together and think broader … to do things to serve not just our families but others.”
Though the pandemic ate up nearly half his high school career, Nicholas Marty said his friend group doesn’t revolve around who and who isn’t vaccinated — he has a mix of friends inoculated and not.
Among teens, Marty said, there just seems to be an indifference to it all, though there have been many cases of young people getting terribly ill.
Marty, who’s been vaccinated for about a month now, said he wishes the best for his community and hopes they reach herd immunity.
"If Seattle's at 80%, that's great. But I'm worried about where Toledo is at," he said.
