Health officials want to convince teens to get their shot as school year nears

Officials with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services are working to boost teen vaccination rates as students prepare to head back to the classroom.

Dr. David Wohl, expert in infectious diseases with UNC Health, said that the vaccination rates are lower than what they are for the adult population.

“This is a crisis, so the problem is that it is not going to get any better anytime soon," he said.

State officials launched a new website to help inform teenagers about the vaccine and partnered with social media influencers, like Iféoluwa @stylecommodity

"The sooner you are vaccinated, the sooner life returns to normal," she wrote on her Instagram.

Joshua Cureton, or @Juztjosh on TikTok, encouraged his followers to get a shot by telling them about the summer cash drawings.

Cureton, a sophomore in college, said he got vaccinated because he wanted to return to normal.

"I actually recently got vaccinated, I honestly hadn't planned to, but I got tired of how different my lifestyle was now then for what it used to be," Cureton said during a livestream with the state Department of Health and Human Services on July 28.

As the school year nears, more children are contracting coronavirus. In the first week of August, nearly 20% of all COVID-19 cases were among children. The majority of those children are ages 5 to 14, according to state data.

“A third of our youth between 12 and 17 have only gotten a dose, so we have a lot more work to do," said Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Experts have much to learn about the long-term effects of coronavirus, especially in younger people.

Wohl said some children could have lingering symptoms after their initial infection and their condition could worsen.

There may be a vaccine for children younger than 12 available soon, Wohl said.

When the vaccine is approved for younger children, Triangle mother Amy McLeod says she plans to get her kids the shot as well.

“The evidence outweighs the risk that the vaccines are safe and the vaccine is mutating in a way that will eventually have the potential to harm them," she said.