College students react to receiving the coronavirus vaccine

Dec. 11, 2020, the day the FDA issued the first emergency-use authorization for a coronavirus vaccine, was a hopeful one for many college students who wish to receive the injection that would protect them from the illness that has killed over 500,000 Americans.

Becca Uniacke is a senior public health major at Temple University. She received her first dose of the Moderna vaccine through Temple in late January and her second dose in mid-February.

“I got the Covid vaccine because I want to protect myself, my loved ones, and the communities that I live in from Covid-19,” she said. “I have several high-risk family members and I wanted to make sure that I was doing everything I could to protect them.”

Uniacke also emphasized that her willingness to get the vaccine concerns her university’s location in North Philadelphia, which is home to low-income communities that are disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus.

Uniacke believes that vaccinations for high-risk activities should be required in order to better protect the population from the virus.

“I think that everyone who is physically able to get the vaccine should be required to have it before participating in group activities and entering public spaces,” Uniacke said.

Andrew Destin, a junior journalism major at Penn State University received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in April at the university’s Bryce Jordan Center, which has hosted a vaccine clinic since the beginning of the month.

He admittedly evinced caution at the J&J vaccine, which was temporarily paused in the United States from April 13–23 as result of six cases of rare and serious blood clots in women who received the vaccine.

“I was skeptical because I received the Johnson and Johnson shot and not the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine,” he said. “I have my questions about how effective it is, but since it was offered by the university on the day people in 1C could get the vaccine, that’s why I got it.”

Destin’s side effects included chills the night after getting the shot, and exhaustion for the next 48 hours.

“My teeth began to chatter and I broke out in a cold sweat,” he described. “I typically sleep in just a T-shirt and shorts, but that night I had two pairs of pajamas on and still felt cold and could not sleep.”

Destin’s reasoning for getting vaccinated stemmed from a willingness to protect himself and others.

“I want to be better protected from contracting the virus,” he said. “I also want to protect my family, since I do not see them very frequently and I will be visiting them in less than a month for the first time since January. My mother is immunocompromised and the last thing I want to do is bring the virus back home to my family, where it can cause serious damage.”

As to whether receiving the vaccine has made him less vigilant, Destin admitted that he has begun to let his guard down, while still following guidelines.

“Being vaccinated has definitely made me be more relaxed with my covid safety measures,” he said. “I still socially distance and wear a mask in public, but I find myself seeing more people in more social settings. I’ll often find myself eating at an indoor restaurant, going to friends’ apartments with more than two or three people and inviting people over to my apartment.”

However, not all college students are convinced that the vaccine is completely safe.

Song Lee, a nursing student at Adelphi University in Long Island, New York, was skeptical at first, but eventually decided that getting the vaccine would be worth it, especially considering her planned field of work.

Lee received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine April 11 and only experienced a headache and mild fever as side effects.

“I decided to receive the vaccine because I was kind of at the front line fighting with the disease,” she said. “But after the new discovery of rare side effects, which caused the death of six people, I would tell other people to wait as much as possible to get the covid vaccine.”

Lee agreed that vaccinations should be required in some circumstances, but not all.

“I think vaccination should be required for traveling, especially international traveling, along with covid preventive measures,” she said. “For things like concerts and sporting events, as long as social distancing and mask wearing are kept at the event, I believe vaccination doesn’t need to be required.”

Health experts across the country have abundantly expressed the importance of the majority of eligible adults receiving the coronavirus vaccine, while noting the potential problems that could arise if not enough people are vaccinated.

“Unfortunately, if vaccination rates do not continue to improve and people don’t adhere to public health guidelines, the virus will have more time to circulate in the population,” distinguished professor of entomology and biology Ottar Bjornstad said in an article for Penn State News.

“This, in turn, will give the virus opportunities to evolve into more variants that may be more infectious. The good news is that if we all do our part, we can continue to protect more and more people, and that should be the goal.”