Administrators urge community to get supplementary shot
Following the most recent COVID-19 variant, Omicron, URI strongly encourages students to receive booster shot at Union. GRAPHIC CREDIT: Elizabeth Wong
The University of Rhode Island has set up a vaccination clinic to give the community booster shots and initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines on Dec. 7-8 and 14-15 in the Memorial Union Atrium 2.
Following the most recent guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University is encouraging all community members who were vaccinated against COVID-19 at least six months ago to get the booster shot as soon as possible and will be hosting a series of booster shot clinics for on-campus throughout December.
To deliver both boosters and initial doses of the vaccines, Ellen Reynolds, the director of Health Services, said that the University partnered with the Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) and other community organizations.
“Given our limited staffing and, honestly, the uptake in respiratory [and] viral illness that we’ve seen on our campus, to pull our team to be able to do that would leave us in a [staffing] deficit,” she said.
Reynolds and Dr. Christopher Nasin, the medical director of Health Services, said it is too soon to tell whether or not the University will require community members to get booster shots, but they are strongly recommending it.
“The vaccine is one of the main ways we can remain safe in our community,” Reynolds said. “Masking certainly is a mitigation strategy along with all of the other things we do, but vaccination is key to this.”
Nasin said that while college students are not in the demographic that tends to see serious illness, they are a community that, when vaccinated, can help prevent outbreaks.
“Whenever [someone gets] an infection, it can create more replicants and variants and things of that nature, and young adults are a population where the virus really replicates quite a bit because of socialization and things of that nature,” he said. “Young adults are actually a really good cohort to target to prevent outbreaks. I really feel strongly that college students should strongly consider getting a booster shot not just for themselves, but for the greater community.”
Students can get a booster shot of any vaccine regardless of what their initial dose was. If you initially got Johnson & Johnson, Nasin said that he would recommend getting a booster of Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna because the makeup is slightly different and would provide a different strategy.
Like most vaccines, the COVID-19 shot has the possibility to cause adverse, short-term effects such as headache, fever and nausea, according to the CDC. While not everybody will experience side effects, Nasin recommended that you try to plan to get your booster when at your healthiest and have time available, just in case.
“I had some adverse effects, I had fever and a headache, but I see that as a good thing, just because I know it’s working,” he said. “So you know that’s a positive, but you may not want to take an exam that way. So just plan accordingly. The good news is that the adverse effects don’t last more than 24 hours, so they go away really quickly. Usually the next day they’re gone.”
Regarding long-term complications related to the vaccine, Nasin emphasized that the community should not worry.
“It was really scary for people in the beginning because we really didn’t know, it was a new technology,” he said. “[But] we have so much data at this point on the safety of these vaccines that really there shouldn’t be any concerns about ill effects, and I can say that with real confidence.”
He also noted that other common vaccines, such as those for measles, mumps and rubella, typhoid and tetanus, also have short-term side effects and the potential for serious complications. But like the COVID-19 vaccine, it’s about weighing the risks versus the benefits.
“Certainly the risk of COVID-19 entirely outweighs the risk of getting a vaccine,” Nasin said. “There’s no question.”
For further information about the COVID-19 vaccine, Nasin recommends students visit the CDC and RIDOH websites.
Registration is required, and the link can be found here.
If you are unable to make the University-run clinics, booster shots and initial doses of vaccines are available all around the country. Appointments in Rhode Island can be found on the RIDOH Vaccination Portal.