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Provost Noel Wilkin said on Monday that “vaccinating our community is the fastest path back to normal” as he encouraged students to get the COVID-19 vaccine, but the university will not require the UM community to schedule appointments for vaccines.
“We know that the path to normal is through vaccination,” Wilkin said. “So if the vaccine is not gotten by the number of people who need to get it in order for us to have comfort and relax the protocols we’ll just continue to modify operations with the protocols.”
Wilkin was accompanied at an information panel by Dr. Lauren Bloodworth, a clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice; Alex Langhart, the director of University Health Centers; and Dr. Hubert Spears, a staff physician at the Employee Health Center, to discuss the university’s vaccine rollout plan.
The university has assembled a COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution and Administration Task Force to develop a strategy for campus immunization, according to an email from Provost Noel Wilkin.
The task force will be chaired by Dr. David Allen, dean of the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Allen has been dean of the pharmacy school since 2012 and has authored 74 peer-reviewed articles and 44 professional publications. He is joined by 13 other members of the university community to complete the task force, including students, faculty, administrators and a staff physician.
“I’m deeply appreciative of their willingness to serve. We will keep the university community informed of the task force’s work as it moves forward,” Wilkin said in the statement.