PATASKALA, Ohio — Licking Heights Local Schools will operate fully remote on Friday. The school district posted on social media the change is because too many staff members called out sick after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Superintendent Dr. Philip H. Wagner said the majority of the staffers received their second shot on Wednesday and were experiencing symptoms from that dose.
On Monday, Olentangy Local School District had to close nine schools due to teacher absences and a shortage of available substitutes.
Dr. Nicholas Kman, an emergency room physician at OSU Wexner Medical Center, said the symptoms reported are to be expected.
“We do know symptoms can be worse with the second vaccine, and they can also be worse if you’ve had COVID in the past,” he said. “With the second vaccine, often what we see are more severe body aches, more severe sore arm, you can have a little bit of redness at the site, again, muscle aches and exhaustion. Rarely people can get a fever, and that would be something that might prevent you from going to work the next day.”
But Dr. Kman points out that having that type of reaction is to be expected and is actually a good thing.
“So it’s important to know that what you’re feeling is your body mounting an immune response, and again, I think it really gives you peace of mind that, hey, now I’m protected, I know, and you might even know a little bit about what it feels like to get coronavirus, that fatigue and that muscle aches, and those kinds of things,” he said. “Those are good things that you’re having that response because it means you’re protected to the degrees that we know the vaccines work.”
Dr. Kman suggests, now that more and more groups are getting access to the vaccine, it might be better to stagger appointments to avoid mass absences on the job.
“What we try to tell people is this is a small price to pay for immunity up to 95 percent after your second dose and really 100 percent immunity from hospitalizations and death, and that’s a small price to pay,” he said. “Missing one day of work is a lot better than missing 10 because someone you were exposed to had coronavirus.”
10TV reached out to the Licking Heights Education Association for comment.
“We definitely appreciate both the Licking County Health Department for doing such an efficient job with vaccinations and the district for being able to be flexible and support our educators as we prepare to welcome back a lot of our students on the 22nd,” said Gina Daniels, a history teacher and vice president of the LHEA.