Kylee Cannon left her ceramics class Wednesday morning and returned with a Looney Tunes Tweety Bird Band-aid on her arm where she received her first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The 17-year-old junior at Thomas Worthington High School was among the first group of high school students to receive the vaccine through Nationwide Children’s Hospital COVID-19 vaccine clinic. The clinic is administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to teenagers 16, 17 and 18 at high schools throughout Franklin County.
“It was very nice that the school was able to offer this,” Cannon said.
She was having difficulty finding time to get vaccinated after school and having it not interfere with water polo or her job as a lifeguard at Goldfish Swim School.
Starting Wednesday,
Nationwide Children s Hospital will host vaccine clinics in Franklin County high schools to help provide teens age 16, 17 and 18 with Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinations. Nobody younger than 16 can be vaccinated yet, though, because clinical trials for those age groups aren t finished.
Thomas Worthington High School and Westerville Central High School will be the first sites, serving all eligible students in the district, said Dr. Sara Bode, a pediatrician and the medical director of Nationwide Children s Hospital s school health programs.
Schools will communicate directly with families about how to sign up students to participate and if school transportation is available. Parents are welcome to attend appointments, which will occur during the school day.