McKinney Independent School District registered nurse Nancy Yarbrough administers a COVID-19 vaccine to a student at McKinney ISD Stadium and Community Event Center on Thursday. Credit: Ben Torres for the Texas Tribune
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In the first week that Texas adolescents were eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19, after a year of pandemic-induced isolation from their families, peers and classrooms, more than 100,000 kids ages 12-15 poured into pediatricians’ offices, vaccine hubs and school gyms across Texas to get their shots.
One of them was Austin Ford, a 14-year-old in Houston whose mother is a pediatric nurse, whose father has a disability that makes him vulnerable to COVID, and who lost a family member to the virus last month.
In the days since the federal approval of the shot for their age group, about 6% of Texas children ages 12-15 have gotten a dose of the Pfizer vaccine.