Wait times were long this week as parents and children packed the Lowndes County Health Department, trying to fulfill a new immunization requirement that caught many off-guard when school began this week.
Earlier in the year, Mississippi joined 41 other states in requiring a new vaccination for students entering the seventh grade. The vaccine, commonly called TDAP, protects against tetanus, diptheria and pertussis (whooping cough).
Children cannot start school without proof of immunization, although parents can apply for a medical exemption. There is no grace period.
The new vaccination requirement is partially in response to an increase in whooping cough throughout the United States. A 2009 outbreak in California became so severe that some schools had to completely shut down. More than 9,000 Californians were diagnosed with the highly contagious disease, which can linger for months, causing violent, racking coughing fits. Ten infants died.
Lowndes County resident Samara Brooks admitted she wasn’t sure what the new vaccination protected against or why it was required, but her daughter, 13-year-old Dominique Brooks, couldn’t enter West Lowndes Middle School without it, so they were among around a dozen people who filled the health department’s lobby Wednesday afternoon.
Health department officials denied reports of wait times as long as six hours but said they were higher than usual, partially due to school vaccinations and parents who either procrastinated or were unaware of the requirement.
LaTonya Ross was at the health department Monday with her 12-year-old son, Quintavius Ross, where she waited three hours for him to receive his TDAP vaccine. Tuesday, she had to return for a tuberculosis test for a job application, and Wednesday she was back at the health department, awaiting the results. She said she’d seen a lot of parents over the past three days scrambling to get children’s vaccinations.
Though announcements were made earlier in the year about the new TDAP vaccine requirement, and school district officials mailed letters to parents, she said she knew nothing about it until she tried to enroll her son in Columbus Middle School on Monday.
“I was shocked,” she said. “He had already had his shots, so I thought he was up to date.”
Carmen K. Sisson is the former news editor at The Dispatch.
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