With expanded eligibility, health officials shift focus to vaccinating young adults against COVID-19
Sarah LehrEAST LANSING — For 23-year-old Genevieve Gottardo, getting her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine was the first step toward resuming normal life.
The graduate student joined hundreds of young people Wednesday at a COVID-19 vaccine clinic only for Michigan State University students.
Any Michigander over 16 became eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine April 5 and health officials are encouraging young people to get vaccinated as soon as they can nab an appointment.
Young people are less likely to die or be hospitalized from COVID-19, but they can still catch coronavirus and transmit it to others at restaurants, their jobs or in multigenerational households.
Young people still spread COVID-19 even if they get less sick
Over the last month, people between the ages of 10 and 29 have accounted for 43% of Ingham County's confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to data shared by the local health department Friday. Sixteen percent of the cases involved residents between the ages of 10 and 19 and 27% came from people in their twenties.
More: What's behind Michigan's COVID-19 surge?
Spread from cases among people ages 16 to 25 are a particular concern, Vail said during a March news conference. It could partially explain why zip code 48823, located in East Lansing, the home of Michigan State University, continues to stand out as the Ingham County's "highest COVID" zip code, Vail said. It's had the most cases both in terms of sheer number and cases per 100,000 people.
MSU "strongly encourages" but doesn't require students to get vaccinated against COVID-19. The university eventually plans to survey students living both on an off campus about whether they've had the COVID-19 vaccine, spokesman Dan Olsen said.
The university opened a student-only vaccination clinic at its Pavilion for Agriculture and Livestock Education on April 7. The Ingham County Health Department operates another drive-through clinic, open to the general population by appointment, at the same site.
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Pause of J&J vaccines creates wrinkle in vaccination plans
Vaccines from Johnson & Johnson can be particularly advantageous for college age populations because they require only one shot unlike the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, Amanda Darche, a spokeswoman for the Ingham County Health Department, said.
That makes scheduling simpler and means officials don't need to rely on the patient returning for a second appointment. MSU's student-only clinic initially offered J&J vaccines, but switched abruptly to Pfizer after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a "pause" in the use of J&J vaccines. The federal agency said it needed time to investigate reports of blood clots among six women who took the vaccine; 6.7 million people have received J&J shots in the U.S.
Twenty-year-old MSU student Daryn Watson initially planned to get the J&J, but now would prefer Pfizer "as soon as possible."
Watson misses the energy of in-person classes. She's created a routine by going to the library each day and wearing a mask from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
"Especially with smaller classes, I miss the connection, the personal interaction," Watson said.
Related: Greater Lansing providers shift vaccines to cover pause on Johnson & Johnson
MSU survey shows 80% of students want vaccine
More than 80% of MSU undergraduate and graduate students said they want to get vaccinated, according to a survey from the National Social Norms Center at MSU.
Close to 12% said they were "unsure" about the vaccine and 7.5% said they did not plan to take it. University officials say they're planning an education campaign to address the top concerns cited by respondents, which were fears of adverse reactions or possible long-term side effects.
More: How to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination with health departments, Sparrow, other Lansing sites
"Peer to peer" outreach efforts have been successful, Olsen, the university's deputy director communications said. That's why MSU rolled out Spartan-themed vaccine frames for social media photos. MSU's student-only clinic schedules between 600 and 800 shots a day, but the university encourages students to register with multiple providers and get a vaccination wherever a slot opens first, Olsen said.
Daniella Lahoud, an 18-year-old freshman, hasn't gotten around to booking an appointment yet. But Lahoud said she plans to do so to keep people around her safe. A desire to protect others was a top reason citied in the survey by students in favor of vaccination along with protecting oneself and wanting normal life to resume.
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Young people became eligible last, have lowest vaccination rates
Teens and young adults without front-line jobs or certain medical conditions were the last group to become eligible for the vaccine in Michigan and younger age groups continue to have the lowest vaccination rates.
Close to 16% of 16 to 19 year-olds and 22.7% of twenty-somethings across Michigan have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a state dashboard updated Wednesday. That compares to a rate of 43.3% for all Michiganders over 16.
A COVID-19 vaccine has not been approved for children under 16.
Elderly people are especially vulnerable to COVID-19 and older Michiganders are more likely to be vaccinated. As of Wednesday, 71.6% of Michiganders 60 to 74 and 70.6% of those over 75 had at least one dose. Michigan residents over 65 became eligible for the vaccine in early January.
Health officials say an overall immunization rate of at least 70% will be necessary for herd immunity, the threshold after which community spread of a disease becomes unlikely.
COVID-19 is surging in Michigan
But as COVID-19 surges in Greater Lansing and across the state, health officials are urging Michiganders to keep up social distancing until more people are vaccinated and herd immunity is achieved.
It takes some time to build immunity after being vaccinated; people are considered fully vaccinated about two weeks after the sole shot of J&J and about two weeks after the second dose of Pfizer or Moderna, according to the CDC.
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Ingham County's positivity rate — the percentage of tests coming back positive for COVID-19 — was 13.7% as of Wednesday. Health officials want that rate to be no higher than 5%.
The B.1.1.7 variant of the disease, which is spreading in Michigan, may be partly to blame for the surge. And people could be giving into what Darche called "pandemic fatigue."
"As things have opened up, people are socializing more," Darche said. "There’s also the desire for the pandemic to end and for the restrictions to be over."
Contact reporter Sarah Lehr at slehr@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @SarahGLehr.