As a graduate student working to treat speech disorders at UNI’s Roy Eblen Speech and Hearing Clinic, Alli Prybil's first priority is keeping her patients safe.
So when she learned last week that she was among the first on campus eligible under state guidelines to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, Prybil, pictured on the right, jumped at the chance.
Working as a CNA at Mercy One Medical Center in Cedar Falls, junior pre-med biology and global health major Mikaela Elenz risked her health protecting COVID patients, some of whom died. Now, she, and other Panthers, are among the first in the state to get vaccinated, providing a welcome ray of hope after a difficult year of illness and uncertainty.
“It was kind of cathartic to be able to get the vaccine after I had watched all the trauma and havoc that coronavirus has put on families and communities,” said Elenz, who sees the vaccine as an important step in ending the pandemic.
Some hopeful news arrived last week as hospitals across the country began administering the first COVID-19 vaccine approved in the U.S. The Food and Drug Administration is expected to clear another vaccine for emergency use this week. Initial supplies of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are limited and are only available to health care workers, but last week was widely viewed as an important step in ending a global pandemic.
2020 hasn’t been easy. A global pandemic, national reckoning on racial inequality and economic crisis have led up to a contentious election season. Psychology professor and department head Adam Butler and family services assistant professor Heather Kennedy are here to help with some ways to cope with stress and anxiety this election season.
While Panthers have done a great job of working together to slow the spread of COVID-19, case levels nationally are expected to begin rising as we enter the fall and winter months. Having a frank conversation about safety precautions is a good way to ensure that everyone in your residence, whether on or off campus, stays safe.
We reached out to some UNI public health students to ask how they’ve handled it.
Answering the phone has never been more important.
Since the beginning of the semester, UNI contact tracers have been hard at work helping prevent the spread of COVID-19 by notifying students of their required quarantine for those in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
