Flu Shots at the Rock, a pop-up pharmacy event intended to help busy students stay healthy, served hundreds of students and even ran out of vaccines on Friday.
“That’s 560 that we’ve done in the last two days, between the Employee Benefit Fair and here,” UT pharmacist Peyton Roberts said five minutes after the pop-up ran out of shots at 1:45 p.m. “I am buying it as fast as I can get it.”
The event, which was scheduled to run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., served roughly 250 students. Several more faculty and students, arriving after the event started to close down, still received their shots at the Student Health Center.
The flu season begins just as fall classes prepare for midterms, so students often find flu shots inconvenient. Billie Amatus-Salaam helped organize the event as the Wellness Coordinator for General Wellness Promotion. In a survey of 4000 students, the Center for Health Education & Wellness (CHEW) found that convenience was a major factor in students’ wellness decisions.
“Of the reasons students cited for not getting the flu shot, one of the ones that came up the most was convenience,” Amatus-Salaam said. “Just not having enough time, not having a convenient location to do it.”
As a convenient and well-known location, the Rock was an easy choice for event coordinators.
“Pretty much everyone knows the Rock!” Amatus-Salaam said. “It’s kind of like its own beacon on campus.”
Not everyone can get flu shots, but, according to Amatus-Salaam, that’s all the more reason to vaccinate everybody else.
“There are some people who can’t get a flu shot due to certain medical conditions, health conditions, things like that,” Amatus-Salaam said. “So, we want to be able to protect those folks who can’t get one.”
Roberts agreed.
“If you take care of the majority of the herd, the whole herd stays healthy,” Roberts agreed.
Allie Parrott, a senior in nursing, was one of the students who helped administer the shots.
“I just like that we’re able to provide flu shots to so many students, and that most of them get the flu shots for free,” Parrott said, noting that a huge number of UT students got sick during last year’s flu season.
The event was created through a partnership between CHEW, the Student Health Center and the UT Student Health Center Pharmacy. Besides the flu shots, the event offered flu prevention trivia games and a Volunteer merchandise giveaway.
Students who missed the event will still be able to receive flu shots for low or no cost.
“The pharmacy will be offering flu shots, so if you missed this event, you can just go to the pharmacy when we’re open and we’ll take care of you,” Amatus-Salaam said.
The pharmacy is located in the Student Health Center, right beside Stokely Family Residence Hall. Flu shots are a copay of $25 or free with insurance.
Flu Shots at the Rock took place on Sept. 21, 2018 to help busy students stay healthy.
