JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Covid vaccine hesitancy is prevalent in Jacksonville, but the University of North Florida is providing major initiatives for students, faculty, and staff to get vaccinated to protect campus.
On November 18, 2021, UNF held a vaccine clinic in partnership with Walgreens to promote getting vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. As the Delta variant rages on and with the Omicron variant on the rise, health officials are making it clear that it is more important than ever to go get vaccinated. Monica Penro, the local store manager for Walgreens, discussed her experiences with covid before and after receiving the vaccine.
“I had covid back in November of last year, 2020, and I did not have a vaccine. Then I got fully vaccinated in February and March and got covid again in August,” Penro said. “However, I didn’t have any symptoms whatsoever.”
UNF held the clinic in November and since then there has been a total of six reported covid cases both from students and employees. The university closely tracks self-reported cases of the virus through its emergency management database, ranging all the way from March of 2020 to the present day. In the week of November 26, 2021, it was reported that four students and one faculty member had tested positive for covid. Comparing this to January 2021, in one week 37 students and six faculty members reportedly tested positive for the virus. It is important to note that these are self-reported cases so it may not be completely accurate.
One of the reasons students may be getting vaccinated is the initiatives UNF is providing for students to protect the campus. Students received an email over the summer stating that with proof of vaccination, each student may be eligible to receive $100 in Ozzie Bucks to use anywhere on campus. With these incentives in place, students are more willing to receive the vaccine. Monica Penro believes that seeing all of the students getting vaccinated is inspiring, as it reveals the importance of protecting the community to all others.
“I think that it’s mostly students, and I think that’s just because of the ratio of students to faculty,” Penro said. “But, I do see a lot of faculty, which I’m very excited to see that they are coming out and wanting to protect the communities.”
Research also indicates that the covid vaccine is working to help contain the spread of the virus. In a study conducted by Dr. Jamie Lopez Bernal and associates through the New England Journal of Medicine, the covid vaccine is also effective against the Delta variant. They tested the effectiveness of the vaccine after one dose and two doses and discussed different vaccines. In both cases, the vaccine was more effective against the alpha variant, but the BNT162b2 vaccine was 88 percent effective against the Delta variant, giving hope that vaccines are getting better and are still effective against the dangerous variants.
However, with all the news of the vaccine coming out so quickly, people are still very hesitant to get vaccinated. People are concerned with how quickly these new vaccines were rolling out and were worried that there might be dangerous side-effects down the line that cannot be studied yet. Lorri Miller Biamonte, a retired nurse in Pennsylvania, discussed the importance of not waiting to get vaccinated. Biamonte had been urging friends and family to get vaccinated to protect themselves and others from the deadly virus. Being hesitant to the vaccine, her sister contracted the virus and died less than two weeks later.
“We have to listen to people tell you during the services that covid isn’t a thing,” Biamonte said. “My sister went 13 days from alive, healthy, vibrant to multi-system organ failure and being disconnected from life support. Just get vaccinated. If she had, she would still be here. It’s really just that simple.”
Spreading awareness about the vaccine and what it can do to help is important in keeping the community safe, from UNF to the entire globe. Dr. Brendan Nyhan and associates from Dartmouth College published a study on effective messages from spreading awareness about vaccines. They concluded that pro-vaccine messages are not always effective, but corrective information about the vaccine from the CDC is beneficial. UNF is continuously following these guidelines and correctional information directly from the CDC and there seems to be a positive response.
As the pandemic continues to surge, health officials all over the world are urging people to get vaccinated to prevent the spread of covid. UNF is doing its part in providing incentives for students and faculty alike to ensure the protection of the classrooms. UNF made a big push toward in-person learning and with vaccinations on the rise and promoting the use of masks in class, there is a decrease in positive cases reported by the university.