Texas has now opened up vaccine eligibility to the 1C group. This means that anyone in the state who is at least 16 years old is now eligible for the vaccine.
“There’s younger people with medical conditions who haven’t been prioritized because their conditions aren’t severe enough,” senior Sarah Campbell said. “Opening up the option to get vaccinated to everyone lets them not have to worry about not getting a chance to get it soon.”
According to KVUE, only 10 million Texans have been vaccinated during the high priority distribution.
“If only a small percent of the people at high risk of COVID-19 have gotten shots, letting younger people get vaccinated is not a good idea,” junior Nathan Wood said.
The state is still aiming to prioritize the 1A and 1B groups for vaccination.
“I feel like [groups 1A and 1B] should still be prioritized because they’re more at risk, but not as much as they have been where it’s only those people getting the shots,” Campbell said. “Everyone should still get a chance to get the vaccine if they want it.”
Wood believes that it would have been more beneficial to give the highly susceptible population more time to get vaccinated.
“COVID-19 does not really affect my specific age group nearly as much compared to older people, so I do not think the need for more vaccine distribution was high enough to justify it,” Wood said. “They should have waited longer to release the COVID-19 vaccine to the younger members of the population.”