While the San Jose State campus may become a coronavirus vaccination site for Santa Clara County, some students think the university should be a site specifically designated for students, faculty and staff.
President Mary Papazian announced the possibility of the campus vaccination site for the county in a campuswide email on Feb. 8 and stated that the university is currently finalizing details.
“Since the beginning of the pandemic, SJSU has expressed interest in assisting the county’s efforts to help the city of San Jose and Santa Clara County,” said Kenneth Mashinchi, senior director of strategic communications and media relations, in an email on Monday.
Business administration junior Adriana Arreola said access to on-campus vaccinations would be convenient for students.
“It's a good idea to make SJSU a vaccination site since there’s students who don’t have cars and have to commute so it would be beneficial to those,” Arreola said in a phone call.
Like Arreola, political science junior Erica Powell said students would be more likely to get the vaccine if it was provided on campus.
“It would make it easier for students to acquire the vaccine if there is a site on campus and that makes it more desirable,” Powell said in a phone call. “Most people don’t want it [the vaccine] because of the difficulties it poses with health insurance.”
Megha Sharma, an applied math senior, said establishing an SJSU vaccination site will increase accessibility to students living on campus who are waiting to become vaccine eligible.
“What sucks is that for a lot of college students, we’re still working to pay our bills, but aren’t considered ‘essential’ enough to get the vaccine yet,” Sharma said. “We’re still risking our health to make our ends meet, but are unable to protect ourselves.”
Santa Clara County (SCC) Supervisor Cindy Chavez said in a Feb. 18 news conference that volunteer support is essential for effective and fast vaccine distribution.
“We must have mass vaccination centers in large urban areas hard hit by coronavirus,” Chavez said in the conference. “We need trained volunteers to do all of this vaccination work because the execution of the vaccine programs is critical to getting the job done.”
According to a Tuesday SCC news release, the latest site establishment is the Emmanuel Baptist Church located in East San Jose.
The church has been a COVID-19 testing site since the fall, and will begin walk-in distribution this week for both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, according to the SCC website.
Vaccine eligibility will extend to workers in education and child care, food and agriculture, and emergency services beginning Sunday, according to California's Public Health Department.
Arreola said campus should be designated specifically as a student vaccination site if the university intends to reopen campus in the fall.
“If they choose campus as a designated site, [they should] prioritize students and staff in its vaccine distribution process and then open it to the public,” Arreola said. “Since we’re the ones on campus more and not being protected in our own SJSU community and can be at greater risk of getting COVID.”
Like Arreola, business administration senior Sean Hall said students and faculty should get priority for the vaccine.
“If classes are going to be in person then the students who are in person should be required to take the vaccine,” Hall said in a phone interview. “The university should provide enough online class alternatives for the ones who refuse to take the vaccine.”
The county aims to vaccinate at least 85% of residents ages 16 and older by August 2021, according to a Feb. 4 SCC vaccine dashboard.
Hall said financial accessibility should be deeply taken into consideration with the development of vaccine distribution on campus and reflected in the final site model.
“Our campus has always been a shared place for the community to come together, with the democratic primaries being one example,” Hall said. “I think our campus is a safe place people can come to and know they’re being taken care of.”
