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Three Students Take Top Awards In Texas FFA Convention
Public Notice
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NBA Legends without a Ring
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(LFCISD) Three Los Fresnos CISD students were crowned state champions in their events at the Texas FFA Convention in Fort Worth this week. Los Fresnos High School juniors Nicole Garcia and Guillermo Medina and Liberty Memorial Middle School eighth-grader Jessetheresa Brisky took
first place and earned scholarships each. They and several other Los Fresnos FFA students are competing in the state competition. Garcia and Medina, now declared state champions in the Plant Systems Division 6 competition, have qualified to participate in the National FFA
Convention, earned $1,000 scholarships each. Brisky earned a $250 scholarship in the Food Products and Food Processing Systems division. Also participating was LFHS junior Italie Gonzales, who took part in the Environmental Service and Natural Resource Division 5 category.
Back to School Vaccinations Local Health Officials Stress Importance of COVID Vaccinations for Children as School Set to Begin
Obituary of Robert Wayne Shafer Page 8
Automotive Repair
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BROWNSVILLE & HARLINGEN – With a new, faster-spreading COVID variant now appearing in the Rio Grande Valley and COVID cases on the rise in all 50 states, local health officials are telling parents there is no time like the present to vaccinate their children as school districts gear up for in-person instruction in the fall. In May 2021, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration authorized the use of the Pfizer version of the COVID-19 vaccine in children 12-years-and-older after rigorous testing, said Dr. Christopher Romero, an internal medicine specialist at Valley Baptist Medical Center-Harlingen. With local school districts opening their doors to students for inperson instruction throughout the month of August, parents of eligible, unvaccinated children should schedule their child’s first dose of the Pfizer
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COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible to account for the 21-day waiting period between the first and second dose. “Studies from the United Kingdom have shown that the Delta variant is 225 percent more transmissible than the original strain of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. A recent investigation into an outbreak of the Delta variant that occurred in Oklahoma demonstrated that the virus spread amongst household contacts at a much higher rate than previously seen,” Romero said. “Now that we know this highly contagious variant is in the Rio Grande Valley it will soon become the dominant strain circulating in our community.” Romero said that while local children returning to in-person instruction will help bring some sense of normalcy back into the lives of the area’s youth,
vaccinating as many children as possible will go a long way to making in-person instruction as safe as possible for students and staff. “It will be great to have our kids back in the classroom, from an education and socialization perspective this is a very positive development. This does come with risks however,” he said. “When kids go back to the classroom each year, we see a rise in the number of cases of respiratory infections, a pattern most parents are all too familiar with. This year that will be complicated by the presence of COVID-19, and if the majority of students are unvaccinated, the opportunity for significant outbreaks is very real.” While local school districts are going to great lengths to prioritize health and safety protocols as children prepare to head back to school, Romero said parents can help ease the burden on school districts
by considering COVID possible and have occurred vaccination for their children. in Texas. One of the severe “I know our schools are conditions that can develop taking extraordinary steps to from COVID-19 in young help keep our kids safe, and patients is Multisystem I am grateful to live in the Inflammatory syndrome great state of Texas where we in children, or MIS-C,” he prioritize personal freedom said. “A recent multicenter and responsibility,” he said. study of patients with “However, as a father, as a MIS-C published in the New physician, and as a scientist, I England Journal of Medicine feel confident recommending showed that over 40 percent that we should feel of the children with the comfortable vaccinating our condition had a reduction children that are eligible. in heart function. We still This is the biggest step we don’t know the full effect can take to help keep our or long term consequences little ones safe, and prevent of COVID-19 in children, them from bringing this but there is a growing body dreaded virus home to infect of evidence that long term others.” Romero said that effects of COVID can occur parents choosing to vaccinate in children, even those who their children can help initially had mild cases.” reduce their child’s risk of Dr. Beverly Zavaleta, a experiencing rare but serious family medicine physician long-term health impacts and physician adviser at associated with severe Valley Baptist Medical COVID complications. Center-Brownsville, agreed, “Fortunately most pediatric indicating that COVID and adolescent cases of COVID-19 are mild, but ► CONTINUED ON PAGE 8: severe cases and fatalities are Covid Vaccination Additional stories and content on our website
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