About half of graduate students who want the COVID-19 vaccine, but were originally not included in the top-tier prioritization groups provided by the State of Nebraska, have since received their first dose, said Ted Cieslak, MD, interim executive director for health security.
More continue to receive doses at the end of each vaccination clinic day, Dr. Cieslak said.
Students registered to be considered for “extra dose clinics” by completing a survey that yields a “risk score,” which allowed registrants to be divided into low-risk and increased-risk groups. Students in the increased-risk group were placed at the top of the priority list, followed by a randomized listing of students in the low-risk group.
Each clinic day, the top students on the list are sent to the Nebraska Medicine vaccination site at Storz Pavilion. If there are any doses of COVID-19 vaccine remaining at the end of the clinic, these students are vaccinated.
Under this system, all graduate students in the increased-risk group have received their first dose, and there are now fewer than 70 low-risk students remaining on the list.
“UNMC leadership remains committed to procuring COVID vaccine for all of our students, staff, and faculty,” Dr. Cieslak said. “We continue to lobby on behalf of those who have not yet had an opportunity to be vaccinated, and we are confident that everyone will soon have that opportunity.”
Dr. Cieslak praised the organization and collaboration that made the ongoing vaccination project possible. “Our clinical partners at Nebraska Medicine have done a fabulous job at immunizing our community,” said Dr. Cieslak, calling the clinics a “well-oiled machine.”
In the meantime, individuals who have an opportunity to receive vaccine elsewhere should take advantage of that opportunity.