The Athens City-County Health Department will offer Johnson and Johnson, or J&J, vaccines as well as Pfizer vaccines at upcoming clinics.
Athens City-County Health Commissioner James Gaskell said with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine being released back to the public, people can choose what vaccine they want to receive.
“In those vaccine clinics, we’re accepting walk-ins,” Gaskell said. “Anybody can walk in. We’re going to go there with J&J as well as Pfizer. So if you walk in, you get to pick one or the other.”
Gaskell said students expressed concern that many would travel home in between doses of two-dose vaccines, such as Moderna or Pfizer. However, Gaskell said students can visit the state’s coronavirus website to receive a future dose.
“There is not a shortage of vaccine right now, so I think that when the students go home, they’ll be able to find the Pfizer dose,” Gaskell said.
This comes after OU paused the use of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine at vaccine clinics taking place in Heritage Hall. At the time, every student who planned to get the Johnson and Johnson vaccine would instead receive the Pfizer vaccine, and would have to return 21 days after their first dose to receive the second, according to a previous Post report.
Originally, university officials planned to use the Johnson and Johnson vaccine to vaccinate students before they traveled home for the summer.
“If you’re a student and you walk in, chances are you’ll be home by the time you need a second dose,” Gaskell said. “That concerned the students greatly, but … 80% of the students at Ohio University do live in Ohio, they will be able to, I expect, find a Pfizer vaccine dose somewhere in their community.”
There were 1,975 doses of vaccinations given through the Heritage Hall vaccination clinics, with 351 Johnson and Johnson vaccines and 1,624 first doses of Pfizer at the beginning of May, Carly Leatherwood, a university spokesperson, said in an email.
“It is the individual’s personal responsibility to get the second shot,” Gillian Ice, special assistant to the president for public health operations, said in an email. “We encouraged people to get the first dose here and to evaluate if they could come back for the second dose or if there is a location closer to home that they could go to for their second dose. With wide availability of the vaccine, students have a range of options for their second dose.”
Despite the pause of Johnson and Johnson vaccines, Gaskell said he thinks the public will still want the vaccine. He explained that before receiving the J&J vaccine, people must be warned about the potential side effects.
“Many people just want a single vaccine, and be done with it,” Gaskell said. “So I wouldn’t be surprised if indeed, the public accepts … the J&J vaccine again.”
Brynn Moore, a junior studying nursing who volunteered to give vaccine shots in Jackson, Ohio, said people were generally excited to get the vaccine.
“I actually had this older lady who came in and I was about to give her (the) vaccine and she almost started crying because she said she was so excited because she has like nine grandchildren she hasn’t been able to see,” Moore said.
Luke Rodgers, a senior studying nursing, volunteered to give the Pfizer vaccine through the Heritage Hall clinic in Athens.
“It was honestly one of the most exciting things I've got to do this whole year, just because our opportunities have been very slim due to our COVID restrictions,” Rodgers said. “We gave shots to anywhere from like 16 (years-old) to, I'm pretty sure we gave one to like 101-year-old. The age group was definitely a very big range so that was cool.”
Rodgers said he noticed students coming back for their second shots and adhering to the guidelines.
“They were doing pretty good about coming back,” Rodgers said. “Since it was during our busiest time of school, I’m sure they weren’t going home as much, especially because we didn’t have a spring break either.”
Moore said she thinks students will be able to easily find a second dose of the vaccine outside of OU.
“A lot of different places offer it, like places outside of the school too,” Moore said. “It’s usually always free. I would say it’s pretty easy as long as they actually try to go get their second one.”
