USU, BRHD administer 1,065 vaccines on campus
Utah State University administered 1,065 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to students and staff in a vaccination clinic on April 9.
Vaccines were administered at the Eccles Conference Center from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. Students and staff reserved a time slot online to attend the clinic.
USU worked with the Bear River Health Department to provide vaccinations, which were administered by USU nursing students and faculty members.
David Rushton, a clinical instructor for USU nursing students, said that the vaccination clinic was a great opportunity for nursing students to practice their immunization skills.
“It’s a great opportunity to get experience,” Rushton said. “They do go through an immunization clinic— there is one at Utah State that they do rotate through— but they only get maybe two or three vaccinations in. Here, they’re gonna give 20-40 vaccinations, so it’s great practice.”
Joseph F Myers A Bear River Health Department nurse fills a vaccine at USU’s on-campus clinic.
The vaccine clinic on April 9 was completely booked. Appointments were filled within three hours of appointments opening up.
“I kind of felt like I was waiting for, like, concert tickets to drop,” USU junior Lauren Palmer said. Palmer was vaccinated on April 9. “I got the email the day before and I, like, set an alarm and everything, and I woke up at 9 a.m. to sign up.”
There was one incident of a vaccine reaction during the day, according to a university spokesperson. The affected individual was taken away in an ambulance.
As of April 9, the CDC’s vaccine adverse event reporting system showed 5,350 reported adverse events related to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, while nearly 5 million doses have been administered so far. The CDC cautions it cannot verify whether the vaccine contributed to the illness or other adverse event.
Joseph F Myers USU student Carter Ottley receives a COVID-19 vaccine at the university’s on-campus clinic.
USU and BRHD hope to hold more on-campus vaccine clinics, but future clinics are dependent on the amount of vaccines allocated to BRHD.
“We have tentative plans to have as many vaccine clinics on campus as we possibly can,” Ellis Bruch, the director of emergency management at USU said. “The issue that we’re up against is that the allocation of the vaccine comes first from the federal government to each state individually, then the states make allocations out to the local health departments depending on the need, so our ability to provide an on-campus clinic in the future is dependent on the vaccine availability.”
The ability for more on-campus vaccine clinics is determined on a week-by-week basis, but the university will communicate about future clinics as far in advance as possible.
It is unknown whether or not future on-campus vaccination clinics will also administer Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Johnson & Johnson is a single dose vaccine, so students who attended the April 9 vaccination clinic will be fully vaccinated before the semester ends.
“A lot of the health departments and those that work in the public health field feel like this population—the 18-24 group—seems to be the most active with each other, which creates the most opportunity for spread,” Bruch said. “So it’s important to get that group vaccinated as quickly as we can.”
USU currently has 35 active cases of COVID-19. Cache County has been designated as having a moderate level of transmission by the state.
@darcyrrose