NC parents, teens lined up to get 3rd COVID shot. Some got less vaccine than expected.

Jan. 11—At least a few dozen teenagers may have received the wrong dosage of a Pfizer COVID-19 booster shot last week during a vaccination clinic at Cedar Ridge High School in Hillsborough, the Orange County Health Department confirmed Monday.

After hearing about a parent's concerns about the dosage, which was less than the children should have received, the department contacted StarMed, the vendor that helped to administer the shots, said Kristin Prelipp, Orange County Health Department spokeswoman, in an email to The News & Observer Monday.

Parents should hear soon from StarMed or the health department, Prelipp said. Health department officials expect to meet Tuesday morning with a StarMed representative, she said.

"They are aware of the incident at Cedar Ridge and will be making contact with the individuals that received the incorrect dose for their booster," Prelipp said.

The N.C. Department of Health and Human Services also is investigating and will work with the vendor to determine how the error occurred and how to prevent it from happening again, NCDHHS spokesperson Bailey Pennington said in an email Monday evening. The state's vaccination database will be updated, she said.

StarMed has not responded to The News & Observer's request for comment.

On Jan. 5, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer-BioNTech booster shot for teenagers, ages 12-15. Teenagers who received their second shot at least five months ago now can get a third booster — 30 micrograms of the Pfizer vaccine for adults.

A smaller pediatric dosage of 10 micrograms of the booster shot is available for immunocompromised children ages 5 to 11.

Chapel Hill parent Jocelyn Neal said she was thrilled to hear that her 14-year-old son and 12-year-old daughter were eligible for a booster. She made an appointment for them at a Jan. 6 vaccination clinic at Cedar Ridge.

They arrived to find hundreds of people in line, Neal said, and when it was her 14-year-old son's turn, she watched as the man administering the shot wrote "peds" on his vaccination card, indicating he had received a pediatric dosage.

The man gave the same dosage to her daughter, Neal said, and wrote the wrong date on both cards. They were not asked to wait 15 minutes to see if the teens had any reactions.

Later that evening, Neal said she returned to the clinic to talk with the manager and show her children's vaccination cards. The manager corrected the incorrect date on one vaccination card, but not the other. She also agreed with the staff member who had administered the pediatric dosage, even though that didn't comply with federal guidelines, Neal said.

"I'm frustrated and upset as a parent that I brought this to the attention that night of two people, and they both just insisted" it was correct, Neal said.

On Monday afternoon, she got a call from a representative from StarMed, the vendor at the Jan. 6 clinic, she said. The representative told Neal that other children had received the wrong dose, Neal said.

COVID-19 vaccinations, boosters

StarMed is one of 13 vendors working with the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services to vaccinate people against COVID-19, said Pennington with NCDHHS.

The company has 58 vaccine clinics in operation now, she said, noting that no other issues have been reported at StarMed clinics. The state provides vendors with training and also conducts site visits and checks to identify issues that should be corrected, she said.

While the pediatric dosage is less than recommended, the CDC recommends against re-vaccinating teens who receive a pediatric dose instead of the regular amount, Pennington said.

The decision to add teenagers to the list of people who should get a booster shot came in the midst of a spike in COVID-19 cases, due mostly to the fast-spreading omicron variant.

While the new variant appears to infect people regardless of vaccination status, the symptoms have been more mild in vaccinated patients, health officials said. A majority of those who have been hospitalized with more serious symptoms are unvaccinated, they said.

The Pfizer vaccine has been available for children ages 12-15 since May and for children ages 5-11 since November. The CDC has not yet authorized a vaccine for children under age 5.

Adults can get a booster shot of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, and could need a fourth shot later this year, health officials have said. The CDC soon could authorize a fourth dose of either vaccine for people with weakened immune systems and who got their third shot at least six months earlier.

Spike in cases

A record number of COVID-19 infections have pushed Triangle hospitals to capacity, with Duke, UNC and WakeMed asking patients last week to seek care at their doctor's office, an urgent care center, a testing clinic or a pharmacy unless it's an emergency.

CDC records show nearly 453 people were admitted to hospitals statewide last week. The state Department of Health and Human Services reported 3,850 people hospitalized as of Monday afternoon.

The CDC reported Monday that there have been 1,707 cases in Orange County over the last seven days, for a case rate of 1,149 per 100,000 residents.

Federal data shows just over 78% of the population, age 5 and older, are fully vaccinated, and fewer than 10 people have died.

That's compared with 1,783 cases per 100,000 residents in Durham County over the previous seven days, and 2,328 cases per 100,000 residents in Wake County, the CDC dashboard showed. In Chatham County, 966 cases per 100,000 residents have been reported.

The CDC has shortened its COVID-19 isolation and quarantine timeline for adults and children infected with the virus to five days if they don't have any symptoms or symptoms are mild.

A negative COVID test is not required to emerge from isolation, however, a person should be fever-free for at least 24 hours and other symptoms must have eased, the CDC said.

NC DHHS and the State Board of Education followed that move by reducing quarantine times for students exposed to the virus or who test positive.

The rules also were changed to allow students and staff who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated to stay in school if they are symptom-free and required to wear a face covering. Fully vaccinated students and staff who are symptom-free do not have to quarantine for an exposure.

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