Hundreds of students get vaccinated at Paly clinic
May 25, 2021
Over a thousand students are now partially vaccinated after the second and final youth vaccination clinic was hosted Sunday at Palo Alto High School’s Peery Family Center gym.
Students age 12 and older received doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the clinic, which was operated by Safeway in partnership with the Palo Alto Unified School District. Both this and last week’s clinics were extremely popular, with all of the first clinic’s appointments being booked multiple days before any doses were given.
Many parents and students wanted to get vaccinated to feel safe traveling during the summer. Current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance says that fully vaccinated people do not need to test or self-quarantine for domestic travel. Testing and self-isolation requirements for international travel are also eased for fully vaccinated travelers.
“We’re most likely going to head to Morocco [this summer],” said Lestina Trainor, parent of Jane Lathrop Stanford eighth-grader Deegan Trainor. “And maybe some other smaller trips like Tahoe, and he [Deegan] will probably go to a sleepaway camp as well.”
William Brail, an eighth-grader at Greene Middle School, said he was happy to receive the vaccine, as it would make him feel more comfortable socializing with friends as well as returning to in-person school.
“I do already get together [with friends] sometimes,” Brail said. “But it definitely will probably make me more comfortable and other people more comfortable as well.”
Other parents felt their children could shed masks during the summer, echoing CDC guidelines that it is safe for fully vaccinated people to go maskless outdoors as well as in many less-crowded indoor locations.
“I think outdoors without masks once you’re vaccinated is probably fine,” said Lisa Hengin, parent of an eighth grader at Greene Middle School. “And over the course of the summer, we’ll see about being indoors and close together.”
