UArizona president wants more doses as campus gets COVID vaccine site
Feb 11, 2021, 4:45 AM
University of Arizona president Robert Robbins (Zoom screenshot)
(Zoom screenshot)
PHOENIX — The University of Arizona will become the third state-run mass vaccination site for COVID-19, Gov. Doug Ducey and state health director Dr. Cara Christ announced on Wednesday.
But the school’s president, like everyone else, wants more doses — and the state is not getting enough from the CDC.
“The state has got to dramatically increase supplies if we’re going to build this out and take advantage of running a 24/7 operation,” Robert Robbins told news reporters in a webinar.
And he doesn’t want the state shortchanging the Pima County Health Department and its supplies.
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“We can continue to the allotment that the county’s getting for the pods we’re currently all running,” Robbins explained.
He hopes doses that the UArizona drive-thru pod will receive supplements that amount. But next week, the university’s registration website will direct registrants to the state’s system — not Pima County’s.
Robbins hopes Health Services is expanding capacity in hopes the FDA will approve Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine this month.
Once it’s up and running on Feb. 18, Robbins hopes the campus pod will dole out 8,000 vaccines around the clock.
He’s not too concerned about the state reimbursing the university for hosting the pod. UArizona is using federal CARES Act dollars to cover costs.
“What I’ve been focused on this whole time is what we can do to get the vaccine out as soon as possible,” Robbins said.
He does hope the Arizona Department of Emergency Management and Military Affairs will give his campus more healthcare workers and pharmacists to prepare and distribute the vaccines to supplement the plethora of volunteers running the drive-thru on campus.
He also hopes vaccinations — again, with more doses — will reach students before summer break and after higher-priority groups have been inoculated.
“It gives us a chance to get all of our faculty, staff, employees and students vaccinated and get back after the summer break to something more normal,” Robbins said.
