By Chloe Kline ‘21 Staff Writer
COVID-19 vaccinations are now available for all college students.
President James MacLaren sent out an email on April 13 to notify all LVC students that vaccinations are available. Though some essential workers and immunocompromised members of the student body had already received one or both doses of a vaccine, this opens up eligibility to the rest of LVC.
Despite some people having minor reactions to the vaccine, such as a sore arm or minor fever, most of those who got vaccinated have not had many problems.
“They had me wait for 15 minutes, and then I was allowed to go get the form for my second appointment,” Jonathan Bellarmino, junior audio and music production major, said. “I highly recommend that all students who haven’t gotten the vaccine already should get it as soon as possible. I didn’t have any side effects except for a little dizziness that evening and a sore shoulder for a few days.”
Many students also feel that getting as many people vaccinated as possible is the best way for the pandemic to end sooner and for life to get back to some semblance of normalcy.
“My experience was positive, fast and virtually painless,” Caity Kline, freshman creative arts major, said. “Other than the mildly bothersome side effects I got the next day like grogginess, body aches and arm soreness, getting the vaccine is something I’d highly recommend to anybody. My grandmother and parents who are all over 50 got it and were perfectly fine. I think it’s worth the risk regardless, and I believe it will help us get the country on the right track to being healthy and back to normal.”
If students are interested in scheduling an appointment for their first dose of the vaccine, they can visit the website for the Lebanon County Vaccination Center on Quentin Road, www.lcdes.org/covid-info/. For those outside of the Lebanon County area, they can go to health.pa.gov and go to the COVID-19 section to find out where the nearest vaccination site is.
Students are reminded to let LVC know once they are fully vaccinated. More information can be found on the COVID-19 dashboard.