Vaccine Clinics for 5 to 11-year olds
First Dose Vaccine Clinics For 5 to 11-year olds – More Appointments Added
Saturday, Nov. 13, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
and
Sunday, Nov. 14, 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
At Newton North High School, 457 Walnut Street, Newton
and at
Oak Hill Middle School, 130 Wheeler Road, Newton
Second dose clinics will be held on Dec. 4 and 5
After School Vaccine Clinics for 5 to 11-year-olds
Wednesday, Nov. 17, 1:30 to 4:30 p.m.
Cabot Elementary School, 229 Cabot Street, Newton
Second dose clinic on Wednesday, Dec. 8
and
Thursday, Nov. 18, 3:30 to 6:00 p.m.
Bigelow Middle School, 42 Vernon St., Newton
Second dose clinic on Thursday, Dec. 9
These after school clinics are being organized by Newton Health and Human Services Department in partnership with the Newton Public Schools. Huge thanks go once again to the Holtzman Medical Group for running the clinics.
More information is available at the HHS website
here. Vaccine appointments are also available at
vaxfinder.mass.gov.
Good effort, albeit a bit late. They should have known that most Newton parents would do everything they can to secure their kids Covid shots as soon as CDC approved 5-11 bracket on Nov 3rd. Many got them at Pelmeds, Bird’s Hill and other places, well before these “clinics” were organized :)
Now we just need the mayor and school committee to drop the mask mandate. Thankfully COVID was never as much a risk for the children, and now that they have vaccines, it is time to let the kids be kids and drop the mandate for schools.
Great idea as we watch positive cases increasing in almost every school district around the commonwealth
We have been told that we should get vaccinated and we will be fine. Cases don’t matter anymore. Covid isn’t going away. There is no way masks are permanent. Vaccines don’t prevent infection, rather they render Covid like the common cold. So let’s make a plan to ditch the mask once the real protection, vaccines, are given.
If you can’t live with that risk, stay home. Many of us who are vaccinated want to carry on with life, not some new normal BS.
Enough already. If the mayor doesn’t drop the mandate then fewer people every day will follow the rule rendering it useless.
Jackson, sorry, cases no longer matter and Ill tell you why I think that. We were told that vaccines will prevent covid…until Delta. Then we were told to get the vaccines to stop severe covid. Now there is this new variant which is spreading despite vaccination AND boosters. So this tells me covid isnt going away and vaccination doesnt prevent spread. Ive got my vax and my booster. My kids are getting their vaccines too. If you are not comfortable with the risk of being vaccinated and carrying on with life then by all means stay home and/or wear a mask.
But for the rest of us who have done everything we can and no longer want to wear a mask or abide by ridiculous restrictions, then we will no longer wear a mask. Im being hypothetical to some degree, but honestly, fewer people are going to listen to the mandates every day that goes by. We arent going to do this forever and many places around the country (not just florida) dont have mask mandates, even in schools. My college roommate is teacher in Michigan – no masks. Massachusetts, more cases per capita than Michigan. But you wont talk address this fact because it goes against your narrative.
This is generally ridiculous. I dont go skydiving and I dont ride a motorcycle because I dont want the risk. Others might disagree, but I am not pushing to ban motorcycles for the common good.
Vaccines, check. Boosters, check. In this country we pushed to vaccinate kids who DIDNT NEED A VACCINE instead of getting adults in other countries vaccinated. We talk about how we want to be leaders in climate change and inclusivity, yet we vaccinate kids who dont need it instead of giving the vaccines away to other countries. Its a joke. We want to let in all immigrants we can, because we care, but when it comes to vaccine availability we push to vax our kids before high at risk people in other countries – oh and in countries where new variants are starting.
As a result variants are going to continue. Omicron is more mild, described as “common cold-like symptoms”. Sounds fine to me. People need to get comfortable that we are all going to get covid. Or, stay home. We just have to hope the vaccines do enough to keep it mild, which they have proven to do. And we should also stop calling them vaccines because they dont stop the spread, only sever illness.
@Franklin D, much of your comment is wrong:
“So this tells me covid isnt going away and vaccination doesnt prevent spread.” Vaccination doesn’t eliminate spread until we hit herd immunity, but it reduces the odds of infection five-fold and death thirteen-fold.
“Massachusetts, more cases per capita than Michigan.” Michigan has 78 cases, 44 hospitalizations, and 0.96 deaths per 100,000 residents. For MA, those numbers are 54, 12, and 0.29.
“I dont go skydiving and I dont ride a motorcycle because I dont want the risk. Others might disagree, but I am not pushing to ban motorcycles for the common good.” Unlike skydivers and motorcyclists, willfully unvaccinated people are risking other people’s lives, especially the old and immunocompromised people with whom they have contact.
“we pushed to vaccinate kids who DIDNT NEED A VACCINE instead of getting adults in other countries vaccinated.” I am 100% with you in getting adults in other countries vaccinated. But we also need to get our kids vaccinated. Some unvaccinated kids get sick and die. Many more keep the virus circulating (and mutating) and pass it on to their elderly or immunocompromised relatives and teachers.
“Omicron is more mild, described as ‘common cold-like symptoms’.” Let’s hope this turns out to be true. It’s not known yet.
“And we should also stop calling them vaccines because they dont stop the spread, only sever illness.” We should continue to call them vaccines because they are a substance used to stimulate the production of antibodies and provide immunity against a disease. Some vaccines work better than others. These work very well, but not perfectly. WIth enough vaccine compliance and enough testing, we can beat this thing. In the mean time, masking remains an important defense and an annoying but small price to pay.
Sorry michigan has more deaths per capita, not cases. Thx for correcting.
Agree on vaccine importance, agree on vigilance, disagree on masking and disagree on vaxing kids before adults globally. Time to move on, we cant do this forever. Everyone get a vaccine and go back to living. YOLO.
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/
Massachusetts has more deaths. Mistyped.
@Frank D – Your data is still incorrect. Per latest data (last 7 days) Michigan has a per capita death rate of 0.96 per 100K, compared to Massachusetts which was 0.29 per 100K. Are you comparing total since start of pandemic? I don’t see that data but Massachusetts was an early hotspot, before vaccine was available, so not a fair comparison.
And it isn’t a decision about vaccinating kids before adults. It is a matter of vaccinating both kids and adults. Kids aren’t taking away vaccine from adults. And giving kids vaccines in US is not taking away vaccine from adults in other countries. The issue has more to do with increasing manufacturing capabilities in other parts of the world. It is not that we have lots of vaccine lying around and either we donate it or give a booster. We do have lots of vaccine, and we need to do more to get it distributed, but currently vaccine supply is not the limiting step.
And I can’t understand why you are against masking. I understand you don’t want to wear one. The pandemic is hard on people in many ways. But the science supports that mask use reduces transmission. Sorry if the facts are inconvenient but let us all just try to do what we can to be good to each other and try to keep everyone safe.
To me the masking in Newton is the same as when the US wants to solve climate change for the world (if China doesnt participate, change is good but incomplete). It is noble, and sure there is support and possibly a benefit, but masking in Newton stops in Newton. No one masks in much of the country. No one masks in many parts of Massachusetts in fact. Even around us, most towns do not have a mask mandate. Go into a supermarket 20 minutes away from newton and it is, in some places, more unmasked than masked. The point is in Newton we arent stopping variants. We arent stopping spread in the state or even our region.
So again, Newton cannot solve the pandemic. It is time to get back to normal. COVID is endemic and a zero-covid policy is not viable. Out of curiosity, when do you suggest we join the likes of Wellesley, Needham, Dedham, Waltham, etc etc without mask mandates?
The point is, for people who have received all 3 shots of the vaccine, you should be able to make your own decision on masking. If you have 3 shots and are still fearful of getting a “case” however mild, then you should wear a mask or stay home. Sorry.
@Frank,
Find me a Boston or Brookline school where masks are optional
Those are two towns with indoor mask mandates. So it isnt possible. Sorry how is this relevant.
MA vs. MI comparison: https://bit.ly/3IiY405
Now compare to Florida. No masks, no restrictions, life as normal. Florida had 1200 cases yesterday and Massachusetts had 3800. Please explain the correlation of masking to cases when we have over triple the cases and less than one third of the population. And dont even start with the “they dont report data”. If you think the CDC in FL is corrupt then I’m sorry for you.
As long as everyone gets vaccines and boosters there is no reason people cannot decide for themselves how to manage the risks. Education is the key, government restrictions are not.
People are indoors in very hot and very cold weather. Florida currently has moderate outdoor weather. MA is cold.
f you look at the daily ratio of deaths to cases (incremental case fatality ratio, not adjusted for lag), your chance of dying of a positive case is currently about 10x higher in FL vs. MA (~6% vs. ~0.6%).
https://bit.ly/3dsj85R
With all the things to worry about, I have yet to understand why wearing a mask in a store is such a big deal.
Another problem with comparing FL and MA at this moment in time is that local COVID pandemics come in waves of about two months, maybe because the disease loses a ready supply of easily victims for a while. A better way to look at it is to count the cases and deaths since June 1, 2021, when it became reasonable to have all adults vaccinated (all data from the CDC):
Florida: 6,617 cases and 114 deaths per 100k residents since June 1. 62% fully vaccinated.
MA: 3,487 cases and 24 deaths per 100k residents since June 1. 72% fully vaccinated.
US: 4,905 cases and 58 deaths per 100k residents since June 1. 60% fully vaccinated.
Why is Florida doing so poorly the last 6 months, given its fairly good vaccination rate? Surely in part because Ron DeSantis won’t allow companies and schools to mandate masking.