FISHERS, Ind — Inside Hamilton Southeastern Intermediate & Junior High School, getting ready to go back to school means catching up on shots.
"Didn't hurt," said Annbelle Davis, a Hamilton Southeastern student.
Ankur Patel took his daughter Shirin to get her annual shots in at the school Wednesday evening, He said having the clinic in the school makes going back to school easy on them.
"She got three of them at the same time, so one less thing to worry about when she goes to the doctor," Patel said.
Staff from the Fishers Health Department moved quickly through the crowd of parents and kids seeking immunizations to help children catch up on their shots.
"But we have been quite busy," said Fishers Health Department director of public health Monica Heltz.
COVID-19 shutdowns in schools and pediatrician's offices meant a lot of kids in Indiana fell behind on their annual immunizations. Now, with everyone trying to catch up, doctor's offices are fully booked ahead of the start of a new school year.
"Pediatrician's offices are not able to get folks in for quite some time and we know they've been under a lot of stress with COVID. So anything we can do to try and offset and help our pediatricians out with something we can do with vaccines, we want to do that," Heltz said.
So, health departments and the state are stepping up to meet that massive demand with pop-up clinics.
Dr. Sarah Bosslet, director of primary care at Riley Children's Hospital, said with so many families needing to catch up, get your child in wherever you can.
"We still want people to get their checkups and come in and see your doctor, but we also know it's been hard to get scheduled because there's been so much pent-up demand and backlog. So the most important thing is get your vaccines, get them before school starts and in whichever location works best for you," Bosslet said.
These school requirements, Bosslet said, are key to keeping national immunity rates high.
"It's very important to stay up to date on these vaccines because we don't come roaring back. I think a lot of people, because we've done such a good job of controlling them through vaccines, we forget how dangerous and deadly a lot of these infections are and how many people they affected," Heltz said.
If families don't follow through, immunity rates could drop to critical levels.
"And we are at that level of risk where we could very easily see measles, mumps and those things come back, because our vaccination rates are lower than they usually are," Bosslet said.
If your child isn't caught up yet for the upcoming school year, Bosslet said check with their school district on their requirements and consider pharmacies or pop-up clinics to get your child in quickly, so they can start the school year off fully protected and feeling good.