On Aug. 31, Ohio University announced all students will be required to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 15, with some exceptions allowed.
Ever since the regulation was announced, the university has made numerous attempts to roll out vaccines quickly and encourage students to get vaccinated to fulfill the requirement.
While the COVID-19 pandemic has garnered mass attention, it is not the first vaccine the university has required students to have in order to be on campus. Gillian Ice, special assistant for public health operations, said several other vaccines are required for college-aged students.
“For students that are in residence halls, we currently require meningitis and hepatitis B,” Ice said. “And the reason why for those specifically is that meningitis is particularly a risk for people in congregate living situations. Hepatitis B is blood-borne and also can be transmitted through sexual contact. And so, obviously, this is a time in college where people are sexually active, and so any sort of sexually transmitted disease we're going to be concerned about.”
Aside from the required vaccinations, Ice said there are several vaccines that are highly recommended for students to get prior to entering college.
“I think a lot of students, depending on what vaccines they've gotten for high schools and K through 12 … we always want any adult to be up to date on their measles, mumps and rubella vaccines,” Ice said. “I think a lot of high school age (students) are ready for boosters for whooping cough, and so that with pertussis is something you’d want to be up to date on. And then, of course, the yearly flu vaccine is important for all ages, really. And I would say particularly on the college population, the flu vaccine is very important in that … part of college is interacting with lots of different people.”
With the coronavirus still a prominent issue on campus, Ice said it will also help to emphasize the importance of the flu vaccine, as the risk of the flu is very similar to that of the coronavirus.
“One of the things that was remarkable last year is that we had very low flu rates in the country and in Ohio and very few flu deaths,” Ice said. “And a lot of that had to do with the prevention measures that we put in place for COVID, the masking and distance and so forth. So, one of our concerns, particularly this year, will be having opportunities for flu vaccine and really trying to encourage that on top of the COVID vaccine ... We anticipate that flu is going to come roaring back because so many people are lifting those prevention measures. Certainly, having masks required indoors on campus will help quite a bit, but we know students spend a lot of time off-campus and times when they could potentially transmit that disease as well.”
James Gaskell, Athens County health commissioner, said a large reason why there has been an increase in coronavirus cases is the abundance of individuals who refuse the vaccine.
“There's been a fair amount of vaccine refusal that has somewhat stymied our efforts to mitigate the coronavirus disease,” Gaskell said. “We haven't been able to vaccinate enough people to provide herd immunity and prevent continuing infection. So, we continue to have lots of people infected with coronavirus partly because we haven't been able to vaccinate enough people and partly because people aren’t masking up, and they're spreading disease.”
One of Athens’ responses to this has been the creation of vaccination clinics in which Gaskell has taken part.
“We're giving vaccines at every opportunity,” Gaskell said. “We’ve vaccinated, so far, 47% of the people that live in Athens County.”
While there have been numerous conspiracies and misconceptions associated with the vaccine since its premise, Gaskell said it is imperative to reject them in order to distribute accurate information and ultimately decrease the case statistics.
“This is a messenger RNA vaccine that they started working on in 2002 when they had another coronavirus, called SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome,” Gaskell said. “30,000 people worldwide got SARS. So, early on, our scientists started to produce a vaccine, and they started working on messenger RNA vaccines. They continued to research and applied it — then they were starting to work on messenger RNA vaccines for influenza, anthrax, smallpox, Ebola — so they worked on messenger RNA vaccines, but they didn't complete their work until the current coronavirus pandemic came along. And the government gave them a lot of money to complete their studies.”
Carole Merckle, assistant director of the area health education center, said the solution to getting more people vaccinated is simply to listen to one another.
“I think the main thing we need to do is listen to folks and listen to why they don't want to get the vaccine,” Merckle said. “We are firm believers that the vaccines are needed to create that herd immunity and to also keep communities safe and keep us and our loved ones and co-workers — everyone safe. We know the vaccine is going to keep people from getting seriously ill and/or dying. But we need to listen because people don't always understand.”
Ice said this uncertainty is still prevalent among the college population, as they are unsure of the virus’ direct impacts.
“Often, students have been telling me they just didn't think it was a big risk for them,” Ice said. “So, I think helping to explain to students what the risk is to them and that the risk is not just about the rates of hospitalization and death, (which) are low in this age group. The risk of long COVID is not particularly low. That's definitely a concern. But I also think one of the things that students care about pretty significantly, based on my conversations with them, is being able to be here on campus and being in person and to attend their classes, and having COVID disrupts that for you. If you have to isolate or quarantine, you face disruption. And not only do you face disruption, but the person next to you is disrupted if they're not vaccinated.”
Ultimately, Merckle said the willingness to explain the importance of the vaccine to those who are uncertain of it will help in the need for increased vaccinations on campus.
“There's a lot of misinformation out there, so, we can help to educate them and provide the facts versus all those myths that are floating around,” Merckle said. “It's also important, I think, to not let political thoughts influence your decision whether or not to get the vaccine because we can see the numbers. We know hospital systems are posting vaccinated versus unvaccinated hospital admissions due to COVID, and we're seeing that the vaccine really is preventing severe illness and ICU admissions and the need for a ventilator. So, looking at those numbers, we know that it is preventing severe disease. So, it is important to keep those ideas in mind.”
If you are a student looking to get a vaccine through OU, call Campus Care at (740) 592-7100 to schedule a vaccine. Appointments are preferred, but walk-ins are welcome. Appointments are available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.
