PORTLAND, Maine — After months of watching parents and other family members get their COVID vaccines, Maine's youngest residents can now roll up their sleeves at clinics across the state.
In Portland on Thursday, Opportunity Alliance held a clinic for kids ages six months to five years old to get their first Moderna or Pfizer shot. Children up to 11 years old could also get a booster shot if they were eligible.
“We’re doing this because getting everyone vaccinated against COVID is really critical," Maine's Center For Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Nirav Shah said.
Shah toured the clinic and said he'd seen strong demand and interest from parents about vaccinating their kids, but "we'd like to see more."
"We’re not going to rest until every child in the state has had at least the opportunity to get the COVID shot," Shah added.
"[The] kids seem fairly indifferent. Parents are very relieved, very excited, not quite to tears, but you can almost see the relief in their face," Anna Bullett, The WIC Program Director at The Opportunity Alliance, said.
Shah also offered advice to parents who may be a little hesitant to bring their kids to one of these clinics.
“What I would offer to parents that are on the fence, is to say, you trust your pediatrician for everything else out there. For asthma, for disabilities, for when your child falls and breaks their arm," Shah added. "You trust your child’s pediatrician for all those things. Why not with COVID vaccines?”
While COVID case counts are not as high as just a few months ago, Shah said new variants, BA.4 and BA.5 make up a vast majority of new cases.
"But if you’re concerned about this, you need not be because the vaccines we have are also effective against these variants," Shah said. "To the extent, you’re concerned about these newest variants the best thing you can do is to get vaccinated, and if you’ve already got your shots to go and get your first or second booster if you’re eligible.”
It's not just the vaccines that offer us protection. Shah said oral antivirals, like paxlovid, and wearing masks, also remain ways to prevent the spread of COVID as the virus remains to be a part of our life for the "near and long-term future."
Here is a list of future clinics designed for kids happening around the state soon.