The university announced that they are trying to provide vaccines to the community directly, but community members should look for an alternative way to get vaccinated, wrote Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Carol Fierke and Executive Vice President for Administration and Finance Stew Uretsky in an email sent to the Brandeis community on April 8.
On April 19, the state of Massachusetts will open eligibility for the vaccine to anyone 16 years or older who is currently living in the state and does not have any preexisting conditions, according to the Massachusetts COVID-19 vaccine page. However, vaccine demand is high, making it difficult to obtain, Fierke and Uretsky wrote in the email.
The university has secured a pharmacy partner and has completed the necessary requirements in order for the health center to be supplied with the vaccine to distribute to community members, according to the email. The Campus Passport Portal is also being prepped for when the university is able to distribute vaccines, so that community members can schedule their appointments on the portal.
The university and their vaccination partner are currently waiting for the state to allocate vaccines to the health center, according to the email. Once the vaccines are received by the university, community members will be notified so that they can sign up for an appointment.
Once the university receives the vaccines, there may still not be enough doses to vaccinate all the members of the Brandeis community that want to be vaccinated, wrote Fierke and Uretsky. The university also may not receive the doses before it is time for students to leave at the end of the semester. The university will not have control over how many doses they receive, the brand of the vaccine or when they will receive it.
Community members are encouraged to find alternative ways of getting vaccinated, once they become eligible, according to the email. Fierke and Uretsky recommended pre-registering for the vaccine on the Massachusetts vaccination site, registering at local pharmacies once eligible, using the Twitter account @vaccinetime, which gives followers a notification whenever appointments become available in Massachusetts, using the Facebook group Vaccine Hunters/Angels Massachusetts and signing up with CovidVaccineTexts.com for texts about vaccines availability.
After being fully vaccinated—one shot for Johnson & Johnson and two for Moderna and Pfizer—it takes two weeks for an individual to obtain immunity from the vaccine, according to the email. Fierke and Uretsky wrote that there have been incidents of students traveling home immediately after getting vaccinated and then coming back to campus and testing positive.
