Temple University began administering second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to students, faculty and staff during the fourth week of operations of its vaccine clinic at White Hall today.
The university vaccinated 2,754 students, faculty, staff and city residents in the first three weeks of the clinic, wrote Mark Denys, director of Student Health Services, in an email to The Temple News.
Temple began vaccinating students, staff and faculty with first doses of the Pfizer vaccine at White Hall on March 31 and Philadelphia residents on April 1. The clinic administered first doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which are administered in two doses at least 21 days apart, for its first three weeks and will administer second doses in its last three weeks.
People who need their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine should look to other vaccine clinics because the university is only administering second doses, Denys wrote in an email to Temple students on April 20.
Temple is administering second doses to a few people who did not get their first dose through the university, but these instances are rare, Denys wrote in an email to The Temple News. People are encouraged to get their second dose at the same place they got their first dose, Denys added.
The university is set to receive 1,100 doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the city each week, with about half the doses intended for students, faculty and staff and the other half for city residents, The Temple News reported. The clinic is vaccinating students, faculty and staff on Wednesdays and to city residents on Thursdays.
Philadelphia expanded vaccine eligibility to all residents 16 years and older on April 16, The Temple News reported.
Students, faculty and staff who received first doses at Temple’s clinic registered through the university’s vaccine interest form, while residents were asked to fill out the city’s vaccine interest form. First dose recipients made appointments for second doses before leaving the clinic.
People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Residents can now sign up for appointments directly to receive their vaccines at city vaccination centers, and the vaccination clinics at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the Esperanza Charter School take walk-ins, 6ABC reported.
Holly Logan, an outreach specialist at the Career Center, was relieved to get her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Temple’s clinic and is looking forward to “moving on” from the pandemic.
Before the pandemic, Logan liked to travel across the country to see her family and is looking forward to doing so again, she said.
“In the future years, I hope to travel again and get together with friends and have like, dinners inside my house, that sort of thing,” she added.
Fully vaccinated people do not need to get tested before traveling within the country or quarantine after traveling as long as they wear a mask and practice social distancing, according to the CDC. Fully vaccinated people should avoid large in-person gatherings but do not need to wear masks indoors with other fully vaccinated people.
Sharon Douglass, a testing services coordinator at Disability Resources and Services, is ready to interact with others without having to worry about contracting COVID-19 now that she has been vaccinated, she said.
“I feel like I can interact with the world and not have to worry about getting sick and getting others sick,” Douglass added.
Douglass received her second dose of the vaccine on Wednesday and is planning to travel once fully vaccinated, she said.
Research on the transmissibility of COVID-19 among vaccinated people is ongoing but so far suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to transmit COVID-19 to other people, according to the CDC.
“I just want to see a beach, and Cancun has been on my mind for a minute,” Douglass added.
Alyssia Sims, a senior technical support specialist at Information Technology Services, got vaccinated to protect her family and to help society return to normal, she said.
“I have family that has a lot of preexisting conditions, and you know, if it helps our country to get back to a new normal or some sense of normalcy, I’m willing to do that,” she added.
Sims is also excited about being able to spend time with loved ones again and traveling to the beach and Walt Disney World Resort, she said.
More than 698,000 Philadelphians are partially vaccinated and more than 459,000 residents are fully vaccinated as of April 19, according to the city’s vaccine dashboard.
Philadelphia will achieve herd immunity once approximately 80 percent of the city’s population is vaccinated, The Temple News reported.
In March, Health Commissioner Thomas Farley predicted that Philadelphia will reach herd immunity by June at its current rate of vaccination, 6ABC reported.
Brad Murphy, a senior film and media arts major, received his vaccine to keep others safe, he said.
Once he is fully vaccinated, Murphy plans on going to a movie theater and seeing “Nomadland” if possible, he said.
“I hope other people would want to keep me safe too, so it’s doing my civic duty,” Murphy added.
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