CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — As another child wailed in fear over getting his COVID-19 vaccine, fourth grader Anthony Silvas handled his shot like a champ.
"It just felt like something poked me,” he said.
Silvas didn't have to travel far to reach a vaccine clinic.
His school hosted it Wednesday afternoon after school district leaders reached out to the health department once the age requirement for receiving a vaccine was lowered.
“When I found out that our five year olds could get vaccinated, it was time to mobilize," West Oso I.S.D. Superintendent Conrado Garcia said. "It makes sense."
Silvas also had company at the one-day vaccine clinic at his school.
His dad accompanied him so he could get his COVID-19 booster shot.
“It was nice," Eddie Silvas said. "That way I can be with him, so he won’t be too scared.”
The father and son duo are a perfect example of why the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District has seen a huge increase in the number of vaccines they administer each day at their clinics across the city.
Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez says the numbers started rising once the age requirements for the vaccine and the booster went down to five and 18 respectively.
“We went from giving about a hundred, 125 (vaccine doses) a day to around nine hundred a day," she said. "So that’s really great news and exactly what people need to be doing."
The elder Silvas agrees with her.
“Everybody get vaccinated," Eddie said. "We’ll be better off.”
And to any nervous kids out there, Anthony has some encouragement.
“I would just say that it doesn’t hurt,” he said.
