CONNECTICUT, USA — People living in Connecticut, age 16 and over, became eligible to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination appointment Thursday.
College students seemed interested in getting a vaccination, but some were apprehensive and wanted to take their time making the decision.
“I actually spent the early morning of today already looking for an appointment, so I’m definitely interested in getting one,” said Lucas Rodrigues, a 23-year-old grad student at Quinnipiac University.
He said he wants to get a vaccination because he respects and understands the effectiveness of the vaccine. He also wants society to return to normalcy after the scare over the past year.
Others wanted to wait a little while before receiving the vaccine.
“Maybe a little bit before the summer,“ said Mathu Fearon, a 19-year-old sophomore at Central Connecticut State University
However, he said he plans to get a vaccination in order to keep his family safe. He said his friends are concerned about the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing the virus.
Few students seemed overly excited over the opportunity Thursday.
“I feel like I am I’m healthy enough to where I don’t need it,” said CCSU junior 21-year-old Nicholas Knight. “I didn’t plan on getting it or going out of my way to get it, but if it’s here then I’ll get it just in the interest of protecting others.”
Others were uncertain.
“It’s early in the production,” Jayson Bubel, a 19-year-old sophomore at CCSU said. “I just want to see how everything works out with other people, how they are affected by it, and then I’ll consider taking it.”
“They just don’t feel comfortable with it and they don’t think that there was enough testing yet, because it is so new,” said Arden Peters
Peters is an 18-year-old freshman at Quinnipiac University. She said some people she knows have hesitations, but as a nursing student, she is fully vaccinated.
“I think that anyone available to the opportunity to get it, should get it because it could help us with herd immunity,” Peters said.
Dr. Rick Martinello, an Infection Prevention Medical Director at Yale-New Haven Health, said he is seeing younger patients with COVID-19.
“I think some of the reason why we’re seeing younger people now is because with springtime and with some of the opening that has occurred, I think people are interacting a bit more and that’s leading to more transmission of COVID,” he said. “I think some of the reason we’re seeing this shift is because of how well we have done in vaccinating those who are older.”
Representatives from Quinnipiac University, the University of Hartford and UConn, all said they are not requiring students to get the COVID-19 vaccination, but they strongly encourage it. The University of Hartford plans to have a vaccination clinic for students before the end of the semester and Quinnipiac representatives said they were exploring the possibility of having a clinic.