Reminder: Covid-19 Booster Update

It has begun to look like fall on campus and there is no more beautiful time to be in Hebron than fall.  The leaves dress for fall, classes and after school activities are in full swing, and the community comes together for many fun and informative activities.

Among these activities includes an on campus COVID-19 vaccine clinic scheduled in October, to be followed by our annual Flu Vaccine clinic in November.  By providing both vaccines,  we can help keep our community on campus, in classes and their activities, and healthy.

The State of Maine Immunization program will supply our health center with the new bivalent COVID-19 booster.  It is FDA approved and targets the most prevalent of the COVID-19 sub variants causing the majority of infections.  The booster may be given to any student over the age of 12 two months after their last booster and within two weeks of any other immunization a student may have had.  The Hebron Academy Health center will run immunization clinics for students the week of October 17th.  The process should be quick and not interfere with your students' regular commitments.

Consents for vaccination are in place for all students in the requirements filled out over the summer, but we do ask you to fill out this form to confirm that you wish your student to receive the booster during our clinic.  I have included further information about the vaccine at the end of this email, and if you have any further questions, please reach out to the Director of Health Services, Deb Traub, at 207-966-5247. 

We will follow this clinic with the annual Flu clinic in November.  It is safe to apply both vaccines concurrently but we have chosen to split the clinics by a few weeks.  The consent for the flu vaccine was also in the requirements done over the summer.  

If you did not consent to your student receiving a flu vaccine, we recommend you reconsider your student having one. It is believed to be a very severe flu season and students in such close contact as ours in a boarding school setting often spread the flu easily.  It can be a serious disease to anyone unvaccinated and cause missed school up to 10 days.  Any infected student would need to be off campus to recuperate.

If you did not sign the consent and now wish for your student to receive the flu vaccine, please reach out to Deb Traub at dtraub@hebronacadmey.org.  This vaccine is also supplied to the school by the State Of Maine Immunization program and is free to any student at Hebron.

If you choose to wait to have the COVID-19 booster or flu vaccine applied, we encourage you to get your student vaccinated before Winter Break as it is our experience that after breaks, we see an increase in viral infections. The CDC still requires any individual with a positive COVID-19 test to isolate for a minimum of 5 days.  In the case of a positive student, that means at least 5 days off campus and away from their classes and activities.  In the case of the flu, because of the high degree of spread, students would also need to recuperate off campus.

Our goal is to maintain a healthy community in order to continue learning together and enjoying all the amazing things Hebron Academy has to offer.

Thank you for working with us to keep our community healthy and well.

https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/booster-shots.html#:~:text=This%20is%20a%20dose%20of,Boosters%20aren't%20new.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/09/01/health/covid-omicron-booster-explainer-wellness/index.html#:~:text=Who%20should%20get%20an%20updated,and%20in%20all%20age%20groups.

https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/population-care/what-doctors-wish-parents-knew-about-kids-covid-19-vaccine-safety

https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2022/s0901-covid-19-booster.html