BRAZOS VALLEY, TX — Students and faculty at Texas A&M University now have the accessibility of getting a COVID-19 vaccine right from the comfort of their campus.
Texas A&M Student Health Services is helping mitigate the spread of COVID-19 vaccinating, allocating doses to students and faculty on campus.
Texas A&M Health Services has been applying weekly to receive COVID-19 vaccines. They were finally approved by the Texas Department of State Health Services about two weeks ago providing the university with doses of Johnson and Johnson.
“More recently, they had enough vaccines coming into the state, that they have been able to now send that out to more providers, so we were fortunate that we were able to get in that rhythm of receiving vaccines,” said Dr. Martha Dannenbaum, director of Student Health Services at Texas A&M.
The health service center is working out of the All Faiths Chapel to support this widespread vaccination effort.
”I think A&M having the vaccine on campus will definitely encourage students to get it, the students who want it are going to advocate for their privilege to get the vaccine here,” Marissa Strandmo, a senior at Texas A&M.
The university was granted 100 doses of Johnson and Johnson, to begin with. At this time, the vaccine site is administering vaccines to the 1a & 1b groups on campus.
“Many people don’t think of our students of maybe being in one of those groups, but the 1B population was actually for anyone 18 an older who had a condition that would put them a higher risk for severe disease,” Dr. Dannenbaum shared.
The second batch of vaccines provided to the university were 500 doses of the Moderna vaccine.
Since the start of the vaccine site, many students have been able to take advantage of this opportunity. Now that eligibility has expanded to all adults starting on Monday, March 29, they anticipate an increase of interest.
Just last week they received 2,340 doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
“We are expected to get the same amount next week as well, and I would expect that that is probably is going to be a consistent recurring amount,” said Dr. Dannenbaum.
Receiving all vaccines thus far and the timing of that will require the center to bring in support through other avenues on campus, such as the college of pharmacy, nursing, and medicine.
“They will be part of our efforts to increase the number of people we could vaccinate particularly during the time when we're having to do second doses as well,” Dr. Dannenbaum added.
Dr. Dannenbaum shared she has witnessed a sense of relief from individuals who are now vaccinated. Without this, the effort of returning to normalcy wouldn’t be possible and the university looks forward to doing so come next fall.
The health center has received 3 batches of vaccines so far, administering Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer.
Students interested can utilize the health service centers patient portal to make an appointment.
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