School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty and students in the news, March 2021
A number of School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty and students have been in the news lately, dispelling vaccine myths, explaining why it’s a struggle to reach rural communities with the COVID-19 vaccine and serving on the frontlines to administer the vaccine.
6 important truths about COVID-19 vaccines
By Sarah Lynch and Kanneboyina Nagaraju
One of the biggest barriers standing in the way of ending the pandemic isn’t medical or logistical. It’s the misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Demand for vaccine currently exceeds supply, but there are many people who are either unsure whether they should take the vaccine or staunchly against it. This is often because they have heard incorrect information about the vaccine or its effects.
Getting COVID-19 vaccines to rural Americans is harder than it looks—- but there are ways to life the barriers
By Bennett Doughty and Pamela Stewart Fahs
The enormous job of vaccinating the nation is underway, but for rural Americans, getting a COVID-19 vaccine becomes harder the farther they are from urban centers.
The current vaccines’ cold storage requirements and shipping rules mean many rural hospitals can’t serve as vaccination distribution hubs. That can leave rural residents – about 20% of the U.S. population – traveling long distances, if they’re able to travel at all.
Getting the word to rural residents about when they can be vaccinated isn’t easy either, and the extraordinary amount of misinformation downplaying the risk of the coronavirus this past year has had an impact on rural residents’ willingness to get the vaccine.
P3 student Laraib Khan on WebMD
Scientists developed multiple vaccines for COVID-19 so quickly, they almost made it look easy. In comparison, getting those vaccines into the arms of the people who need them most seems to be the hard part. Across the country, groups and individuals are stepping in to help.
So far, nearly 56 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed in the U.S., and nearly 33 million have been given to around 34 million people, as of Wednesday, according to the CDC. (Both of the currently authorized vaccines require two doses, and almost 6.5 million Americans have received both.) While priority groups are different from state to state, right now, the CDC recommends vaccinating health care personnel, residents of long-term care facilities, essential workers, people over 65 years old, and those over 16 with certain medical conditions.
P3 students Marisa Gerber, Mahvish Hoda, Laraib Khan and Diana Kwiatkowski on WBNG TV
P3 student Mahvish Hoda on Spectrum News