University-Hosted Clinic Administers Nearly 300 COVID Booster Shots
Administration partners with Carbon Health to provide students with a more accessible option to receive their booster vaccination ahead of the March 17 deadline
Nearly 300 COVID-19 booster shots were administered to Santa Clara community members last Friday, with virtually no wait time.
The clinic, located at the Locatelli Center, was hosted by Santa Clara’s COVID-19 Operations Team in partnership with healthcare provider Carbon Health.
In an effort to increase booster rates amongst the Bronco community, the university has scheduled another clinic for Jan. 28. Santa Clara faculty, staff and students who have received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine five months ago — or the Johnson & Johnson vaccine two months ago — are eligible to receive a booster shot.
The clinics were scheduled shortly after the university announced in a campus-wide email on Dec. 20 that Santa Clara students, faculty and staff must receive a COVID-19 booster shot by March 17.
Professor of biology and public health Craig Stephens, who has helped organize vaccination clinics on campus since last spring, was an instrumental figure in planning the booster clinics with Carbon Health.
“Everyone in the Santa Clara community, whether it’s students or employees, has to get a booster by the end of this quarter,” Stephens said. “So we are just trying to make it as convenient as possible to have access to it right on campus.”
The university partnered with Carbon Health in an attempt to streamline the process and accommodate more members of the Santa Clara community. The appointment system, which was blamed for long wait times at previous university-hosted clinics, was also addressed.
Aside from a volunteer staff who checked IDs to ensure that whoever came was a member of the Santa Clara community, Carbon Health provided all of the medical personnel to administer the booster vaccines.
The university has hosted various vaccination clinics in conjunction with the Santa Clara County Public Health Department throughout the past year, which were open to both members of the university and the broader community.
A clinic held on Nov. 11 was the first to offer booster shots exclusively. Although roughly five hundred students, faculty and staff were given shots that day, long wait times made it an unpleasant experience for many. One student said he was forced to wait 45 minutes in line, just to realize that he was not yet eligible for a booster.
The university is currently working to organize another clinic in February in consideration of the many students who tested positive for COVID-19 in January and could not attend either clinic.
“We’re just trying to really encourage people to get boosters because there is some evidence that immunity from the original vaccinations will slowly decline…if you do get infected, the odds are that it will be a very mild infection if you've gotten boosted,” Stephens said.
Register for this Friday’s clinic here.
Photo Credit: Rikesh Mehta