By Anna Galaktionov
As of April 5, Barry students can take the COVID-19 vaccine.
Anyone aged 18 or older residing in the state of Florida can receive the vaccine either through the state or through the county health departments, hospital providers, or retail pharmacies, such as CVS or Publix.
To find a location near you, visit this website.
To prove Florida residency, you will need to show your driver's license or identification card before receiving the vaccine.
There is no charge for the vaccine at any location.
Barry University encourages every student to receive the vaccine as a crucial step to return to “normal” and resume in-person studies.
Eileen Egan-Hineline, director of student health services at Barry, told The Buccaneer that “it is vital that everyone gets their COVID vaccine.”
A large portion of college students think they don’t need the vaccine, because the virus doesn’t have a very strong impact on young people, she said.
Even though most of the cases in young people are mild, some are severe, because of underlying health conditions, so Egan-Hineline explained that young adults can be vectors, or spreaders, of the virus to the older and more vulnerable population.
“This is a global pandemic . . . We must reach heard immunity so that those individuals who cannot get the vaccine, but are vulnerable to the virus, do not catch the virus,” she said. “In the history of medicine we have never cured a virus. The only thing you can do is have enough people catch the virus or vaccinate against it, so [that] the virus eventually cannot spread to another host and dies off.”
If you have doubts or concerns, the CDC lists the benefits of being vaccinated, answers frequently asked questions, and addresses common myths about the vaccine on its website.