Starting Wednesday, Syracuse University will begin vaccinating students, faculty, and staff who haven’t yet been inoculated against COVID-19. The university has received an initial allotment of 1,600 doses of the Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccine from the state and Onondaga County.
Vice Chancellor Mike Haynie says their Barnes Center health and wellness team is ready.
“When the county first stood up its vaccination effort in January, unbeknownst to a lot of people it was Syracuse University’s health center team that was part of the county’s team doing the vaccinations,” Haynie said. “That team has been trained, they understand the protocol, they are uniquely suited to very quickly turn around and set up a vaccination clinic here on our campus.”
Many campus faculty and staff have already been vaccinated based on other eligibility criteria, but Haynie says they don’t have specific numbers. The university sent a pre-registration email last week, and will be working from that list to schedule appointments. Meanwhile, Haynie says they’re counting on personal accountability to avoid additional spikes in infection.
“That behavior is the only proactive thing you can do to protect yourself and others from COVID. We’ll continue to message accountability and the responsibility we all have not just to the campus community but to the Central New York community.”
Haynie says having all students vaccinated will help reduce COVID-19 cases on campus. Currently, 169 SU students actively have COVID-19 and nearly 1,500 have recovered over the course of the pandemic. SU expects to receive more doses in the coming days and weeks.
The SUNY system is rolling out much the same effort. The first shipment of more than 18,000 single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccines are being distributed to its 34 campuses this week.