Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, left, and Lt. Gov. Lisa Cano Burkhead, center, visit a vaccination clinic at the Horizon Ridge Wellness Clinic on East Flamingo Road Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021. The visit was part of Protect Nevadas Future week of action, a statewide effort to vaccinate children ages 5 to 11 years against COVID-19 from Dec. 18 to 23.
Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021 | 2:03 p.m.
The best time to get vaccinated against COVID-19 was yesterday, Gov. Steve Sisolak said. “The second best time is today,” he added.
Today was the day several patients at a central Las Vegas clinic chose to get themselves and their children their shots, with the holidays days away.
Sisolak and his recently sworn-in lieutenant governor, Lisa Cano Burkhead, took in the scene.
Sisolak acknowledged the coronavirus doesn’t hit young people as hard as middle-aged and elderly people. But vaccinating kids adds another layer of safety as the world tries to move away from the nearly two-year pandemic, which is revving up again with the emergence of the omicron variant.
“Our best method to fight this virus is the vaccine and the booster. You go back to March of 2020 when this just started, we had washing your hands and social distance,” he said. “That's what we were doing to try to protect people. We've advanced significantly since then.”
Children as young as 5 became eligible for the vaccine in mid-November. The state has made a push in the last week with a campaign called Protect Nevada’s Future to get youngsters their shots.
The state says Nevada has 277,000 children between ages 5-11, the most recent age group to be authorized for the vaccine (those age 12 and up were cleared in May). The Southern Nevada Health District says that in Clark County, more than 24,000 children so far have had at least one shot; 13,000 of them are fully vaccinated.
“Vaccines work. It's very simple. You just don't get as sick if you've had the vaccine,” Sisolak said. “The hospitalizations are much, much lower when you've been vaccinated and the deaths are really reduced. That's what this is about. We cannot overwhelm our health care system again like we did before.”
Esmirna Maloon, clinic director at the Horizon Ridge Wellness Clinic in the Medical District near Desert Springs Hospital, didn't have turnout figures as of midday, but she could tell more people were interested.
The clinic usually hosts Immunize Nevada once a month and combines it with a food pantry giveaway. Today's event, which also had a Christmas toy giveaway, brought cars from its set-back location right out to Flamingo Road.
If clinic staff don’t give shots – for the coronavirus, flu or other illnesses – they’ll at least educate potential recipients. One mom was initially unsure about the COVID-19 shot but after talking with Maloon decided to get herself and her two children, ages 10 and 12, vaccinated.
As a parent, Cano Burkhead said she understands the need to ask questions before getting children their shots. She said her own young girls were excited to get vaccinated.
“I would encourage everybody to do that so that they can have that information and feel really comfortable going into getting vaccinations for their children,” she said.
