Boosters key part of Ottawa back to school rush

Back-to-school boosters On the eve of a new school year, hundreds of young students attended a community vaccine clinic to get a third dose. Colton Praill reports.

Ellie Tait has her pencils sharpened, her bag packed, and her binders ready to go, but before she starts Grade 2 on Tuesday, there was one last item to cross off the list.

“It didn’t hurt that much,” the eight-year-old exclaimed, as the vaccine needle left her arm.

Like hundreds of other students, Tait was hurriedly getting her COVID-19 booster at Jabapalooza, a community vaccine clinic run by family physician Dr. Nili Kaplan-Myrth.

“We’ve been watching it, the approval came in and we were waiting, waiting, waiting for the shots to be to actually available. [We’re] super happy to have got it, even if it is the last day before school,” Amy Taylor, Ellie’s mother, said.

Health experts say the boosters, which had been approved by Health Canada for nearly two weeks before getting acceptance in Ontario, are essential to limiting the spread and severity of the virus at schools this fall.

“It’s a really important service we can provide to help give children that layer of protection and encourage children to mask and for educators to mask,” Kaplan-Myrth said.

Parents who attended the clinic say they were relieved to have another layer of protection for their children, but many questioned new guidance from the province’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Kieran Moore, that dropped isolation requirements and made masking optional, even for those who may be positive for the virus.

“I’m happy that he’s got the added protection but I’m quite concerned the province adopted this new self-isolation rule. I think it is likely to spread our disease,” Derek Leschinsky said.

Those concerns are shared by some students, who fear they’re returning to classrooms that may offer less protections that than they did last fall.

“I had a lot of relief today because I did not want to catch COVID in the middle of the school year,” Ava Patten-Pool, a Grade 5 student, said.

The new regulations have been widely panned by doctors, including Kaplan-Myrth, who argues the decision is one based in politics, not science.

“Five days of isolation was insufficient and getting rid of all isolation is absolutely outrageous, and it means that we’re absolutely going to have the same outbreaks we had last year, but more,” she said.

Ontario’s education minister released a statement Monday saying he is “fully committed to a stable return to the classroom without disruption through to the end of June.”

But for students at this community clinic, these third doses boosting more than just they’re immune systems.

“I’m feeling good, I’m excited,” said Grade 6 student Colin Leschinsky.