Back to school talk is starting up and TriCounty Health shared a Back to School message on social media that garnered a strong response from community members over the weekend. The message encouraged community members to include the COVID-19 vaccine when getting 12-year-old and older students immunized for the new school year. The image included the note that “vaccinated students will not have to wear masks, quarantine, or miss activities they love.” The social media post received hundreds of shares and over 700 comments as of Sunday night, primarily from community members angry at the message contained. Following the strong response, TriCounty Health Department issued a response on Sunday evening to their earlier post and shared the following: “To clarify the previous post regarding getting students immunized for COVID-19 for school: When there is an exposure to someone with COVID-19 in a classroom, your student that is fully immunized will not be asked to quarantine. This means, unless a student is sick, they will not have to miss out on sports and extracurricular activities. A student who is vaccinated is less likely to get COVID-19. We have Pfizer available for everyone 12 and older at all our back to school vaccine clinics.” Many community members again reacted strongly against the assertion that students 12 and up should receive the COVID-19 vaccine. It remains unclear what the exact policies regarding COVID-19 will be in the school districts for the upcoming school year.
