Students take a shot of Moderna vaccine

Last Tuesday and Wednesday, some CSC students received their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. 

CSC students became eligible to receive the vaccine after Panhandle Public Health District announced all panhandle vaccination providers were moving to vaccinate adults 18 and over. 

Panhandle Public Health District Director Kim Engel announced the move during its Unified Command webinar with the Scottsbluff County Health Department Monday afternoon.  

“It’s your turn, that’s what we want to get out,” Engel said. “Don’t feel like you’re taking anybody’s spot, or someone should have it before you. It’s your turn, so please take it. COVID shots are now available for people over the age of 18.” 

Engel says that college students were excluded from the congregate living standard of phase 1c of Nebraska’s vaccination plan because they were impacted less severely than older populations. Nebraska moved past phase 1c and into phase 2 a couple of weeks ago.  

“It was removed for college students because it really wasn’t evident that their outcomes were as bad as people older, so they were removed from that congregate living,” Engel said. 

She says the vaccination for CSC is a special push due to college students’ time crunch. 

“There is a timing issue for college students because we don’t have Johnson and Johnson [single dose vaccine] in abundance at this time,” Engel said. “So, if we want to get students vaccinated and then their second dose given before they go home, we’ve got to do it soon – this week or next. That is why it is happening at CSC this week.”  

According to the CSC COVID-19 implementation team, at least 650 doses of the Moderna vaccine were assigned for distribution to CSC students.  

Hope Stone is a sophomore of Chadron. She received the vaccine on Tuesday.  

“I feel like it’s a pretty responsible thing to do overall and it has been scientifically proven that vaccines can help,” she said. 

She says she understands some people don’t want to get the vaccine but still urges them to receive it. 

“They should at least consider it,” she said. “If they feel like it isn’t safe, they should talk to a medical professional about it for sure.” 

Another student, Wesley Palmier, freshman of Pine Ridge, South Dakota, received the shot but says he did not feel a thing. He expected to eventually get the shot, so he took the opportunity on Tuesday to receive it. 

“I’m certain if I didn’t get it here, it would have been somewhere else,” Palmier said. 

He says some people he knows are concerned about getting the shot, and concerned he was receiving it. 

“Some people probably didn’t really like the idea that I was going to get the shot because they had their own concerns – which I understand,” he said. “It’s plausible to have concerns, especially with the vaccine coming out so quickly.” 

He thinks as many people should get the vaccine as possible but understands it remains a choice. 

“I think it should remain a choice; you have a right to have cautions and concerns,” he said.  

His concern for older relatives is one reason he got it and another reason he is less concerned about younger people receiving the vaccine. 

“I would strongly advise my elder relatives and others who are mostly at risk to get the vaccine, but for most other people – especially ones my age – I don’t really think too much into it,” Palmier said. 

Cheyenne Bacon, a sophomore of Lewellen, is another student who received a vaccination on Tuesday. She hopes the vaccine helps her return to pre-pandemic normalcy. 

“I just want to go out and do things again, and I’m a theater major so its very hard to experience all things theater when we’re masked and have to social distance,” Bacon said. 

She hopes others receive the vaccine. 

“I definitely think that everyone should get the vaccine or at least some form of it,” she said. “The faster we get the vaccine; the restrictions could lift.” 

“If you hate masks get a shot in your arm, because then we don’t have to wear masks anymore,” she said.