The University is preparing to host six clinics with bivalent COVID-19 boosters and flu vaccines on campus over the course of this month, according to Vanessa Britto MSc鈥�96, associate vice president for health and wellness.听
The clinics will be held in the Multipurpose Room at the Health and Wellness Center, and students will receive more information in the coming days, according to Britto.
The bivalent COVID-19 shots target two different strains of COVID-19: SARS-CoV-2, which circulated in the early months of the pandemic, and the Omicron subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5.听
The Rhode Island Department of Public Health recently notified the University that bivalent booster 鈥渟upplies have increased and that vaccines could be made available鈥� to host clinics on campus, Britto wrote in an email to The Herald. Both the bivalent COVID-19 boosters and the flu vaccines 鈥渨ill be available at no cost to students.鈥澛�
RIDOH 鈥渟trongly鈥� recommends individuals be vaccinated for COVID-19 in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines and , said Philip Chan, consultant medical director at RIDOH and associate professor of medicine and behavioral and social sciences.听
The CDC recommends that individuals ages 12 and older get the booster if it has been at least two months since their last vaccine dose, which may be a final primary series dose or an original monovalent booster. Individuals who recently had COVID-19 should wait three months before getting the booster.听
The University does not currently require the bivalent booster. 鈥淲e do, however, strongly recommend it, and recommend students get the flu vaccine,鈥� Britto wrote. 鈥淭his is a very big reason why we are making them available to students on campus.鈥澛�
Even as COVID-19 becomes more endemic with increased levels of population immunity, 鈥渋t is really, really important still that people do get vaccinated,鈥� Chan said. 鈥淭he vaccine continues to be one of the most effective things we can do in preventing severe disease.鈥�
Carla Humphris 鈥�24 walked to CVS at the Providence Place Mall to get her booster after making an appointment .
鈥淚t鈥檚 far more convenient for me to go for an afternoon to get a booster than it is to have a week of school where I feel sick 鈥� or stressed about infecting other people,鈥� Humphris said.听
鈥淚t鈥檚 interesting how no one is getting the booster because Brown isn鈥檛 asking for it,鈥� she added. 鈥淚鈥檝e mentioned getting boosted to my friends and their first reaction is, 鈥極h, Brown doesn鈥檛 require it, right?鈥� And that鈥檚 the end of the conversation.鈥澛�
Humphris said she would have appreciated more encouragement from the University for students to get vaccinated because 鈥渟o many students don鈥檛 even know that they鈥檙e eligible for it already.鈥澛�
COVID-19 daily cases, deaths and hospitalizations have trended downward after rising this summer in the United States and Rhode Island, according to data from the and .听
While 鈥渨e continue to see a low community level of COVID-19 across all counties here in the state, 鈥� we are still seeing some transmission,鈥� Chan said.
Chan emphasized the necessity of continuing to adhere to safe COVID-19 practices such as isolating and testing while symptomatic and 鈥渟taying on top of the latest data.鈥�
Haley Sandlow is a section editor covering science and research as well as admissions and financial aid. She is a junior from Chicago, Illinois, studying English and French.
