Knox College has arranged for Hy-Vee to hold a vaccine clinic on campus, first coming to administer the Moderna vaccine on April 28. The clinic will be open to any Knox student or employee who wants to receive the vaccine.
President Teresa Amott announced this in her April 15 Knox Together email. The clinic will be located in the Fieldhouse and its hours will be 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM on the April 28 date. A total of 208 shots will be available to be administered, and appointments can be signed up for here.
In her email, Amott also encouraged people to seek the vaccine from other sources if they do not wish to wait until the 28th and requested that supervisors be accommodating to employees wishing to receive the vaccine.
While Amott in her emails could not confirm when Hy-Vee will return to administer the second vaccine dose, Vice President for Student Development Anne Ehrlich stated to TKS the expectation they will return 28 days later as required for the second Moderna dose. Ehrlich noted that one of the positives of this timing is it will allow students the opportunity to receive both shots in advance of returning home from campus.
Knox had originally requested to work with the Health Department on holding the vaccine clinic, but this could not be arranged due to the large number of organizations making similar requests. This led to Knox working with Hy-Vee, who has previously worked with Knox on campus flu shot clinics.
For now, Ehrlich says Knox’s stance remains that they will not make an attempt to track who in the Knox community has been vaccinated until there is permanent FDA approval for the vaccine.
In terms of ongoing COVID cases on campus — as of April 15, there are 4 people in isolation, only 1 of which is an on campus student. There are also 11 people in quarantine on campus and 3 in quarantine off campus.
In terms of enforcing the school’s COVID policies, Ehrlich confirmed that “several” students were recently told they could no longer live and learn on campus following their involvement in activities deemed to be in violation of the Knox Together Pledge.
While campus COVID cases continue to trickle in at what the school considers a low rate, Ehrlich acknowledged that some on campus may be relaxing their adherence to the COVID policies.
“I think people are more relaxed for a number of reasons, and I think this is not unique to Knox… they’re sick of it, I’m sick of it. The weather is nice, people want to hang out more. And as they get vaccinated, they think they can be more relaxed, ” Ehrlich said. “I think all of those things are true nationally and they are definitely true at Knox.”
For our future reporting on COVID-19 vaccines, TKS is interested in collecting thoughts from the Knox community. If interested in submitting your thoughts about the vaccinations, you may fill out our survey here.
