On the afternoon of Friday November 5, the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese hosted another COVID-19 Vaccine clinic at the Center for Nonprofits in the JTL shop in Springdale, Arkansas. Among the Arkansas Coalition of Marshallese staff that were present at the event included ACOM’s Project Manager, Stephanie Takamaru, recently joined intern, Lewisa Lawin, as wellas JR Kiona who is the new Journalist for ACOM, and many more.

The Coalition helped to vaccinate more than 1,000 individuals who walked in and were happy to offer the vaccine to everyone, not just members of the Marshallese community. As misinformation and false rumors spread about the vaccine, ACOM has shown that the way to fight the virus is to come together as a community.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has determined that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine is safe for children, age 5-11. They determined the size of the dose, and tested for safety and effectiveness, in clinical trials in which 3,000 children participated. In these trials, the participating child does not know if they are getting the real vaccine or a placebo. This is how scientists determine if the vaccine is safe and if it works. Participants find out after the results of all participants are studied.  As children start to get vaccinated, the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines continue to be monitored. That is why doctors and nurses ask you to wait after you get the shot, so in the rare instance that something happens they are there to help.

The spread of covid among children continues to disrupt schools. For students who are not vaccinated, contact with someone who tests positive for covid means quarantining for two weeks. This can mean sometimes that nearly half a class can end up in quarantine. Students and teachers who are vaccinated do not need to quarantine unless they start showing active symptoms. They also are very unlikely to spread the virus to their families.

Breakthrough infections continue to put our elders and high risk loved ones at risk. Last week, one of our Chikin Melele writers met with Saimon Milne to jitdam kapeel. He shared old stories and chants that he had learned in his youth, and he talked about historical events that he had witnessed in his life. You can read more about his experiences in Springdale in Marjorie Rosen’s book Boom Town. He explained that last year he had come back from Spokane when the pandemic started. He wanted to go to his friends’ funerals who died from covid but he stayed home. He was very sick with the covid-virus last month and he went into the hospital twice. The vaccine is very good at preventing death, but he still got very sick. We are very fortunate the he is still with us to share his wisdom with us.

Thank you to our on-site reporter Tyler Norwood and much gratitude to ACOM and the other organizations arranging vaccine clinics for our Marshallese community.