Health Sciences students got their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, then administered shots to locals and faculty members who qualified under the state guidelines, at a clinic in the gym on January 28 and 29.
Altogether, 510 doses were administered over the two day period according to Director of Nursing Education Liz Mizerek, about half of those doses went to students and faculty who qualified, while the other half went to members of the community who qualified.
When asked how the college received the doses for the clinic college president Dr. Jianping Wang said that after a meeting of the New Jersey County Colleges Council (NJCCC) the group sent a letter to Governor Murphy asking him to “put us on the front burner.”
Dr. Wang says the college administration was originally optimistic about possibly opening back up for the summer sessions but is hesitant given “the delay in vaccination right now.”
She says that with the “current speed we should be operationally more normal in the fall semester. But things could change with the new [presidential] administration. If things could speed up in the next two months we might be able to squeeze in summer.”
The primary person who organized the clinic was Professor Elizabeth Mizerek. She said, “We worked very closely with the Mercer County Division of Public Health and some local health agencies to ensure that we had all the necessary staff and equipment.”
She went on to describe things that are needed besides just needles, vials, and bandaids, like “ensuring you have bottles of water for your volunteers, somebody feeds them, shows them where the bathrooms are.”
She explained that about 100 students from Mercer health programs received and administered the vaccine and added “It has been a wonderful experience for our students. It’s augmenting their education, getting them more hands on.”
In addition to running the clinic, Mizerek has also received both doses of the vaccine. She says that when people ask her how it went she responds “My arm was a little sore. Big deal. It’s better than getting COVID.”
One person who volunteered at the clinic was Mercer Math Professor Jamie Fleischner. She says, “People went in. They were on the list. They had forms to fill out. It seemed to run very smoothly.”
Professor Fleischner said the hardest part of volunteering was turning away people “who had not made an appointment and were asking if there were any vaccinations.”
Locals have to go through the state system to get assigned a spot at MCCC.
Mizerek said the college is hoping to be able to conduct another clinic, but that many factors will impact the effort such as availability and the weather.
As of this writing, New Jersey has been given 1.02 million first doses from the federal government and 822,080 people in NJ have received a first dose of vaccine which is 9.3% of the overall population. But lack of doses and a difficult signup process has slowed things down.
The local Public Health website says, “Mercer County receives vaccine doses from the State Department of Health, and there are an extremely limited number of doses made available to Mercer County. This is of no fault of the County or the State, as the supply comes directly from the Federal Government.”
According to the CDC the Moderna vaccine booster should be administered four weeks after the first. Second dose appointment notifications were sent out within a day to those who received their first shots so they know when they will need to come back.
Prof. Mizerek says of the vaccine clinic, “It’s an honor to be part of the largest public health initiative this country has ever seen.”
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If you would like to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, find out information about it, or see if and when you are eligible to receive it, go to covid19.nj.gov or you can call 855-568-0545 from 8AM to 8PM.
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Jason Norton contributed reporting for this article.
