Pete Mendoza
Health services recommend that students obtain the most recent vaccine to ensure their safety even though the COVID-19 pandemic has ended.
UTRGV Director of Health Services Dr. Rick Gray said COVID-19 variants are constantly changing, just as the flu virus we have dealt with for many years.
Gray mentioned holidays are a factor of spreading COVID-19, since everyone that you have not seen in a while are gathering up in a single area. This helps to bring other variants together and causes people to obtain those variants.
He also said people can have completely opposite symptoms when they have COVID-19.
“Some folks might feel kind of off for a day or two and then some feel like they get hit by a truck and are ill for several days with severe flu-like symptoms,” Gray said.
As the government declared COVID-19 over, no more funding will be allocated for it.
“This last May, the U.S. government declared the pandemic over,” he said. “So, there’s no longer any federal funding for vaccines. And we have them but they’re at a cost because they’re not supplying the vaccines to us anymore.”
Gray said students have to pay for the vaccine they want from the University.
“If I buy the vaccines, it costs the university $115 a dose just to buy the vaccine,” he said. “And we turn around and charge students what it costs us without any markup.”
Gray said there is a tight supply since the manufacturers are still trying to catch up with the production of the latest vaccine.
Student Marketing Advisor for UT Health RGV Student Health Angelica Velasquez said a new shipment of vaccines had just arrived.
“Not to mention that we’ve just recently received [the vaccines],” Velasquez said. “We haven’t had any vaccinations available for a while, which is why we haven’t really done any of our pop-ups as you would see with the flu vaccine because we haven’t received them until just last week.
As a preventative measure, Gray recommends the vaccine.
“I would recommend the vaccines to anybody that is available to take them,” he said. “If there’s an illness that can be prevented by a vaccine, I would suggest that students and our faculty and staff as well comply with vaccine recommendations.”
Gray said there will be no charge to the clinic, however it will be posted on student’s Assist account where they can pay it at any time.
Velasquez said students could either pay out of pocket with financial aid, or a loan if necessary.
She said students and faculty could visit the UT Health RGV Student Health clinic if they have any symptoms.
“As soon as you start feeling ill or any sort of symptoms at all, we always encourage them to come visit the clinic,” she said. “It’s even just to get a check up. It’s a service that’s covered by your tuition fees.”
For more information about COVID and vaccines visit utrgv.edu/health-services.
This is Pete Mendoza for Vaquero Radio.
