As vaccines are being distributed across the nation, some UAB students are lining up for their first dose.
Lexi Long, senior in nursing and patient care tech, just received her Pfizer vaccine. Long said she had the health of others in mind when it was her turn to be vaccinated.
“I chose to be vaccinated because I do not want to accidentally spread covid to a patient or my roommates,” Long said. “I wear my mask to protect others and I’m getting the vaccine to protect others.”
Long said nursing students have been offered the vaccine since they are frequently in hospitals.
Before being vaccinated, Long said she was experiencing some nerves, but still took the vaccine without hesitation.
“When I first saw news reports about the vaccine, I was a little nervous because they said mRNA vaccines were totally new,” Long said. “I trust the CDC website to explain medical news, so I read up on the vaccine clinical trials and how we have studied mRNA for decades.”
Long said her nursing classes also reassured her confidence in the vaccine.
“Before COVID, I had learned the phases of medication development in one of my classes,” Long said. “I was happy to see that all the phases were being done for this vaccine, just all alongside each other instead of one after the next.”
Long said aside from arm soreness, she felt normal after receiving her shot. As for the vaccine skeptics, Long said unity is a key step in combating the virus.
“To get through this pandemic we have got to be in it together,” Long said. “We have to work to keep each other safe. Vaccinations are the step that is going to get us to herd immunity, so that we can get back to sitting next to each other in class and going to lunch together.”
Regarding vaccine distribution among the general public, Dr. Kierstin Kennedy, Chief of Hospital Medicine, said vaccines could be administered sooner than the medical community previously thought.
“The recent update makes me optimistic that it’s coming a lot sooner than we had initially anticipated,” Kennedy said. “I think at first we were thinking this spring when the community would start to be able to have access to the vaccine and it’s looking like this is going to be a lot sooner than that.”
Kennedy said having conversations about vaccine experiences has helped ease hesitancy within the medical community.
“We’re able to talk to each other about our own experiences with getting the vaccine,” Kennedy said. “And our understanding of how the immune system works and how the mRNA technology works and the safety behind that and that is convincing people to go forward with getting it.”
While community vaccines could be coming soon, UAB is implementing new health protocols for students and employees, while sticking to what worked last semester.
Pam Benoit, Ph.D and provost at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said masks and social distancing will be enforced during the spring semester.
“Last semester went well and we were able to keep our campus safe,” Benoit said. “We will continue this same approach, but have adjusted our testing according to the data and the guidance from our infectious disease and our public health experts.”
In the upcoming semester, students living in residence halls will be tested prior to moving in. After that, those students will be required to test every two weeks. Benoit said this testing will be available for other students and employees.
More information on COVID-19 at UAB can be found here https://www.uab.edu/uabunited/
