NCF hosts first community vaccine clinic

Earlier this week, New College was able to work collaboratively with the community to make Sarasota and Manatee safer, stronger and more connected.

With the goal of increasing COVID-19 vaccine accessibility locally, New College hosted its first on-campus walkup clinic on Monday. The free event marked the beginning of a health partnership designed to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 by ensuring that the public is quickly and efficiently vaccinated.

“We really just want the vaccines to be distributed as widely as we can,” said Anne Fisher, Ph.D., the program director for New College’s Counseling and Wellness Center, who was instrumental in facilitating the event. “It was an easy thing to allow everyone in the community to attend.”

The clinic was held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at New College’s Harry Sudakoff Conference Center, and the Sarasota County Health Department administered 117 doses of the Moderna vaccine (a total of 500 vaccines were on hand).

All students, faculty, staff and alumni from New College and the University of South Florida Sarasota-Manatee (USFSM) — as well as everyone ages 18 and older in the greater Sarasota-Manatee area — were welcome to attend the clinic without appointments or insurance. A second-dose clinic will be scheduled at New College during the week of May 17.

Monday’s clinic initially was organized as a student vaccination event by New College and CARES Outreach Services (a Sarasota nonprofit dedicated to community health and testing). However, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ordered a suspension of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine on April 13, New College initiated a closer partnership with the Sarasota County Health Department and Hedges HealthMart Pharmacy to offer the clinic.

Fisher, CWC Health Educator Susan Stahley and New College Director of Campus Space Scheduling Jeff Thomas worked to make the clinic happen on short notice. The team started brainstorming on April 14 and already had the clinic planned by the following afternoon.

“Chuck Henry from the Health Department was happy to partner with us and Hedges Pharmacy,” Fisher said. “Also, Bill Woodson (New College’s dean of outreach and chief diversity officer) arranged to have Dr. Washington Hill come to the clinic and answer any questions students had about the vaccine. He was terrific and very well-known in the community.”

Multiple vaccine stations were arranged in the Sudakoff building, and masked participants did not have to wait in line for doses.

“I got my second dose at the vaccine clinic in Sudakoff. It happened to fall in the right timeframe for me and was convenient,” said Katherine Brion, Ph.D., assistant professor of art history at New College. “There was no wait to get vaccinated, and the people staffing it loved seeing more people arrive (not just from New College). Very thankful.”

Clinic attendees also were given the option to receive free HIV and Hepatitis C testing at no cost, along with information about PrEP (a one-pill-a-day regimen that prevents the spread of HIV).

Individuals who did not wish to receive the Moderna vaccine at the April 19 clinic may return to the New College campus for another tentatively scheduled shot on April 28 (in hopes that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be cleared for use by then).

Overall, the first vaccine clinic was a well-organized, collaborative success. But community partnerships like this are not out of the ordinary for New College.

“We are a small college, but we are connected to our community and have close relationships with our partners. Community collaborations are frequent and usual for us,” Fisher said. “For example, we have partnered with Hedges for HIV testing, and the Health Department worked with us (and with Tobacco Free Florida) on our tobacco-free campus initiative.”

The vaccine clinic is an example of New College’s commitment to the health and safety of the campus community and beyond.

“We are aware that it’s often difficult for our students to leave campus to get vaccinated, as they have limited transportation options and time. The majority of those vaccinated on Monday were New College students, and we were also were able to invite USFSM, which has not had a vaccine clinic on their campus yet,” Fisher said. “And we’re pleased that the community could utilize our campus in a helpful way. We always love partnering with our community.”

We certainly do. And this is a critical time for all of us to support one another, in any way we can.