St. Thomas’ Center for Well-Being announced Nov. 29 that it would begin offering COVID-19 booster shots, filling up all the time slots in “a matter of days,” according to The Center for Well-Being Director of Operations Luis de Zengotita.
Although St. Thomas started providing students boosters at its clinic Nov. 11, the Center for Well-Being held back advertisements for 18 days because of limited nursing staff, which hindered student access to vaccines as the omicron variant, a “variant of concern” according to the World Health Organization, spreads across the United States.
“There just aren’t nurses out there that are available to take these positions to assist us and administer more vaccinations,” said Madonna McDermott, executive director at the Center for Well-Being.
On Nov. 19, the Food and Drug Administration extended emergency use authorizations for both Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 booster shots for individuals 18 and older at least six months after completion of the primary vaccination. The Johnson & Johnson extra dose had been authorized Oct. 20 for all adults two months after their single dose.
The Center for Well-Being, however, has carried only Moderna and Johnson & Johnson due to logistical issues, as the Pfizer doses require ultra-cold storage, a resource that is not available at the university’s clinic.
The decision of not advertising on-campus vaccination once the Johnson & Johnson and Moderna booster shots became available at the Center for Well-Being was primarily based on prioritizing treatment for students in need, according to McDermott.
“Our first responsibility is with managing ill students,” McDermott said. “And trying to carve out days for vaccination takes additional staff.”
Limited scheduling was also a reason for not advertising the booster shots, McDermott said, as slots filled up quickly without the need to announce booster availability.
“People get frustrated when you promote something and then they try to get in and all the slots are full,” McDermott said. “That’s kind of what happened, pretty quickly, is that once we advertised it, the slots that were available for vaccination filled up very quickly.”
Initially, in November, booster shots were scheduled on Tuesdays or Thursdays, but more days were added according to staff availability, McDermott said.
“It will be much easier in January to be able to do that,” McDermott said, “because there’s fewer students on-campus, and the volume of students who are ill and needing to have medical appointments and triage by the nurse will be decreased.”
Luana Karl can be reached at karl2414@stthomas.edu.