'Excited To Get It': 13-Year-Old Receives Vaccine In Fairfield

FAIRFIELD, CT — Less than 24 hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds, Matthew Loiz got his first dose.

“I was pretty excited to get it,” the 13-year-old said just minutes after receiving the shot Thursday at a vaccination site in Fairfield. “I’m just glad that more and more people are getting vaccinated.”

Over 71 percent of Connecticut residents aged 18 and up had received at least one dose as of Tuesday, and more than 56 percent were fully vaccinated, the highest rate in the nation. Parents and legal guardians of the roughly 170,000 children in the newly approved age group can sign their kids up for an appointment or visit any clinic that accepts walk-ins and offers Pfizer.

Matthew, an eighth-grader at Shelton Intermediate School, said he got the vaccine because he wanted to do his part to help Connecticut return to pre-pandemic normalcy.

“These kids are missing out on life because they keep getting exposed and keep getting quarantined,” said Diane Rubinstein, site lead at the St. Vincent’s Medical Center vaccination megasite on Sacred Heart University’s West Campus, where Matthew got his first shot of the two-dose vaccine.

Many pre-teens and teens are asymptomatic carriers of the coronavirus, Rubinstein noted, which means they can unintentionally expose their grandparents and teachers to infection.

“They’re the ones who are passing it on,” Rubinstein said.

Matthew’s mother, Nicole Loiz, has a unique perspective on the pandemic. She works as the director of clinical operations for medical and emergency services at St. Vincent’s, and has been involved in navigating the hospital’s coronavirus operations.

“I want everyone to know that this is safe to do and easy to do here,” she said of the vaccine.

Matthew’s two older sisters are already vaccinated, and he said the shot didn’t even hurt.

“I doesn’t really hurt, in fact, you don’t really feel it,” he said.

The Sacred Heart megasite allows walk-ins and offers Pfizer every day that it is open, as well as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. For more information, visit hartfordhealthcare.org/health-wellness/covid-vaccine/locations.