MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Jackson Health System is offering COVID-19 shots to college students in Miami-Dade County and many who showed up to get the shots Thursday said they were grateful for the collaboration.
College students can get the shots at Jackson Health whether they are an in-state student or outside of Florida, including international students.
“We know that young people are eager to get their lives back to normal,” Carlos A. Migoya, president and CEO of Jackson Health System, said Thursday.
Barry University sophomore Ashley Dever said getting her shot was easy.
“Overall, it was great, 10 out of 10. No problem. No hassle. We came in and just showed our ID.”
Migoya reminded everyone amid the optimism that there are still 105 COVID patients at Jackson hospitals and over 600 in beds through Miami-Dade County.
“We’re not over. People are still getting sick. People are still dying of this disease and the only thing that will prevent it is the vaccination of everyone of us,” he said.
Students, ages 18 and older, can log on to Jackson’s online appointment portal at JacksonHealth.org and book an appointment at one of its three locations.
- Christine E. Lynn Rehabilitation Center, 1611 N.W. 12 Avenue, Miami
- Jackson South Medical Center, 9333 S.W. 152 Street, Miami
- North Dade Health Center, 16555 N.W. 25 Street, Opa-Locka
Heading to the vaccination site near Zoo Miami on Thursday, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava teamed up with faith leaders to address vaccine hesitancy, particularly within Black communities, where distrust in vaccines has historical roots.
“I know about the Tuskegee experiment. I know that for years they felt we were guinea pigs, but this is life or death and I believe now is the time,” Pastor Alphonso Jackson Sr. of Second Baptist Church said.
The green shirted Vax Team was set up to knock on 30,000 doors to get the word out. Faith leaders led by example by rolling up their own sleeves at the Zoo Miami site, while Cava received her second dose.
Pastor Emeritus Walter T. Richardson of Sweet Home Missionary Baptist Church told the crowd that “without the vaccine, you can catch COVID and you can spread COVID and that means you can help COVID mutate into more contagious and deadlier forms.”