Vaccination for 12-17 year olds | Montreal teens are still lagging behind

More than six months after the vaccination of adolescents began, Montreal is still at the back of the pack in Quebec in this age category. State of play.

Judith Lachapelle
Press

A delay never completely caught up

At the end of May, the appointment setting began for the vaccination of 12-17 year olds. A month later, at the dawn of the summer vacation, Public Health noted that, already, Montreal adolescents had been less numerous than others to seek a first dose. Only 55% of 12-17 year olds were vaccinated, while the provincial average was already 68%. The D^r Paul Le Guerrier, medical consultant at the Montreal Regional Public Health Department, has set up a strategy to attract adolescents. “We worked all summer to increase this vaccine coverage,” he says. Ephemeral clinics at the Bell Center or in the parks, information sessions in several languages, return to schools this fall for distribution of doses … Six months later, the gap has narrowed with the rest of Quebec, but no has not been completely erased.

Motivate teens

Why do Montreal teens seem a little less enthusiastic than others to roll up their sleeves? This is what the team of D^r The Warrior tried to understand. “When we did a survey in June, there were fewer cases of COVID-19,” he said to explain the lack of motivation of some at the beginning of the summer. “There was also the idea that since the ‘others’ were getting vaccinated, they didn’t need to. For others, there were religious barriers. Some had accessibility constraints, the bus or metro trip was too long. And then there was stubborn misinformation in some ethnic and cultural communities that the vaccine might be able to prevent women from having babies. In the latter case, specialists have explained at length that no, neither the vaccine nor the antibodies it generates make women infertile.

West Island Success

You have to go to the far end of the island, to Senneville, to find the proportion of Montreal teenagers who are the most vaccinated: 88%. However, less than a hundred adolescents live in this “village” where the population is more advantaged than in the rest of the island. But several other areas of the West Island have reached the target of 80% of adolescents vaccinated. Marie-Florente Démosthène, coordinator of public health activities at the local CIUSSS, also attributes this success to the efforts made during the summer. “We deployed teams of professionals to discuss vaccination with them, what they thought, give information, debunk some myths, all without judgment and without forcing them. »All private and public high schools as well as CEGEPs were visited this fall to give first or second doses.

More effort and less results

Other sectors of the island are a little more behind schedule. It is not for lack of having put in the efforts, says M^me Demosthenes. “Of course, in neighborhoods like Pointe-Claire, we are dealing with a population that is much more used to seeking the services it needs than in other sectors, such as Dollard-des-Ormeaux. Local vaccination clinics have been opened to get around the transport obstacle cited by several families. But in the LaSalle Heights neighborhood, where the vaccination rate is lower than elsewhere (58% of the total population is adequately vaccinated), the efforts made have not yet been sufficient to reach the target. “We don’t hide the fact that we have to make efforts to get people to fully understand the benefits and advantages of vaccination,” says M^me Demosthenes. Until coverage is sufficient, weaker neighborhoods are more vulnerable to outbreaks. ”

Outremont

Right in the center of the island, one district stands out: that of Outremont, where only 57.5% of teenagers are adequately vaccinated (62% have had a first dose). This is the lowest rate of all the boroughs and towns on the island. A good proportion of the young people of Outremont are part of the Hasidic community. Sam Muller, who organized vaccination campaigns in the neighborhood with the Council of Hasidic Jews of Quebec, points out that several reasons can explain the reluctance of young ultra-Orthodox to be vaccinated. “We’re still trying to figure out why,” says Sam Muller. Some young people feel that they are not at risk for complications, some are afraid of the side effects of the vaccine, and some are also uninformed. Community leaders, including several rabbis, urged Hasidic Jews to be vaccinated, he recalls. “We hope that the more people there are vaccinated, the more it will encourage others to do so. »The D^r Le Guerrier adds that he also does not rule out the possibility that, given the very close relations between the Hasidic Jewish communities of Montreal and New York, some members were vaccinated in the United States, but did not have registered their vaccine in Quebec, thus eluding statistics.

Rich neighborhoods, poor neighborhoods

Last spring, vaccination rates in underprivileged neighborhoods were much lower, by one to two times, than in wealthy neighborhoods in Montreal. The situation has since recovered somewhat, with a difference of less than 15%. In Montreal-North, for example, the proportion of people adequately vaccinated is now around 70%. According to Tammy Bui of WeCanVax, this was accomplished through a campaign to raise awareness of minorities. “In Parc-Extension, we put pictures of young adults from these minorities on vaccination advertisements, we translated the posters into Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi. It is important to join these groups. ”

With the collaboration of Mathieu Perreault, Press