Parents of VU student come for visit, leave with COVID-19 vaccination
Expo Center site set up for 2,800 Sunday, Monday
For the Weiland family of Hoffman Estates, Illinois, coming to the mass vaccination clinic for COVID-19 at the Porter County Expo Center was a matter of convenience in more ways than one.
Daughter Kira, 18, a freshman at Valparaiso University, left a few items at home over Easter weekend that they had to bring to her. They were able to get the first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Sunday, a day ahead of when vaccine eligibility in Illinois, except in Chicago, opens to everyone age 16 and older. They can get their second dose when they come back to Valparaiso in four weeks to pick Kira up at the end of the school year, too.
“We had to come here for her anyway,” dad Kurt Weiland said Sunday.
The only downside for the family was that son Jake, 16, got turned away because he’s too young for the Moderna vaccine, but Porter County Health Department officials at the site told the family to stop by the mass vaccine clinic in Gary at Roosevelt High School on their way home, since that clinic offers Pfizer, suitable for the teen.
“They don’t even open it up until Monday (in Illinois) and then you have to get scheduled,” said mom Karyn Weiland.
Coming to the Expo Center, Kurt Weiland said, was only an hour and a half away from their home.
“It was meant to be,” said Karyn Weiland.
Between Sunday and Monday, the Expo Center was set up to administer 2,800 first doses of the Moderna vaccine, said Letty Zepeda, administrator for the health department.
The state, through the federal government, received 38,000 Moderna doses and divided them to the state’s 92 counties based on population but there were no residency requirements for receiving the vaccine.
“This is open for everyone, even Illinois,” she said, adding quite a few people were crossing the state line for the vaccine. “Exactly a month from today, we’re going to be doing it all over again” for the second dose.
The Expo Center usually administers around 500 doses during a routine vaccination clinic so, to accommodate the additional crowds, the health department pulled in a lot of its staff, volunteers and paid nurses.
Officials thought the clinic, split between two buildings at the Expo Center, would be busier, but the uptick in other sites likely kept the crowd manageable, Zepeda added.
“They can go to Gary Roosevelt. It’s walk-in and they’re giving Pfizer, too,” she said of the eightweek clinic which, unlike the one at the Expo Center, does not require an appointment.
Valparaiso University nursing students and professors were among the volunteers keeping the clinic running smoothly.
“It’s wonderful for students to witness public health,” said Cynthia Felton, clinical coordinator for the College of Nursing and Health Professionals.
Students prepared in class to administer the vaccines and also got experience at the clinic keeping track of doses, deciding when to open another vial of the vaccine, screening patients and putting them at ease if they were nervous, Felton added.
Participating in the clinic, the sophomores in the nursing program said, was a tremendous opportunity given the pandemic.
“This is actually the first time I’ve ever given any vaccine and for it to be COVID is historic. It’s a big piece of history,” said Elizabeth Harmon, 20, of Bristol, Indiana, adding participating in a mass vaccination clinic isn’t something she’d done before. “To do that is super cool.”