PNW students roll up sleeves as campus vaccine clinic opens

Purdue University Northwest senior Leslie Ramirez-Tapia didn’t need to be persuaded to get her COVID-19 Pfizer shot Tuesday during the first day of the vaccination clinic at the Hammond campus’s Nils K. Nelson Bioscience Innovation Building.

“I just want my family to be safe,” said Ramirez-Tapia, 22, a business marketing major from Hammond. “The faster we get vaccines, the faster we can move ahead.”

She said the injection didn’t hurt, but she was told by graduate nursing student Joanna Clausson that she may have some arm soreness or common cold symptoms.

“I’d rather be sick for a couple days than infect other people,” she said.

Tuesday marked the opening of the four-week vaccination clinic aimed at providing shots to students, staff and faculty at PNW campuses. The clinic gets underway Thursday on the Westville campus.

Julie Wiejak, co-chairwoman of the Safe Return Task Force, said the university received 1,200 Pfizer doses Monday and 1,100 people had already signed up for shots. If it appears there will be some doses left, Wiejak said PNW will put out an alert on social media and on WJOB-AM, a Hammond radio station, so anyone in the community can get vaccinated.

“If we can put it in somebody’s arm, I’d rather do that than waste it,” Wiejak said.

The clinic is staffed by 24 student and faculty volunteers with nursing students administering the shots. Wiejak said it could receive up to 5,000 doses, if needed, during the four-week clinic.

They worked in the university’s new $35 million College of Nursing and Department of Biological Science building that Dean of Nursing Lisa Hopp said is gradually beginning to welcome students back after the pandemic shutdown.

PNW spokeswoman Kris Falzone said the Westville campus was slated to administer the Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID19 vaccine, but its use was paused Tuesday by the federal Centers for Disease Control after six women developed a rare blood-clotting disorder after getting their shot.

Instead, Falzone said the Moderna two-dose vaccine will be given at the Westville campus.

Josh Tieron, 18, an electrical engineering major from Hammond, said he was happy to see the age level for the vaccine drop quickly.

“As things get loosened up, I want to feel safe. Pretty much all my friends are on board too,” he said.

Freshman biology major Dylan Holsclaw, 19, was infected with COVID-19 last October.

“It wasn’t too bad, but I didn’t have a sense of smell for two months,” he said.

Holsclaw, who lives in university housing, couldn’t wait to get vaccinated.

“I just wanted to be safe and do my part to end the pandemic,” he said. “I was really excited to get the email saying students could get the shots.”

Marketing major Heather Reichert, of Thornton, Illinois, brought her dad, Richard Reichert, in for his first shot. She had received her vaccination earlier in the day. “He came willingly,” she said. Nursing student Megan James gave Reichert his shot.

“I didn’t feel it,” he said.

James, of Highland, said she also vaccinated her husband.

“It feels really great to be doing this and seeing people be enthusiastic,” she said.