March 31, 2021
by Abigail Roth
Yale School of Medicine (YSM) students, in collaboration with a diverse set of other students and community members, are playing a significant role in the vaccination campaign in New Haven, in Connecticut, and nationally. Their impact ranges from designing the New Haven Health Department (NHHD) vaccine registration postcards mailed to all city residents, to influencing President Biden’s decision to order an amendment to the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act), which authorized and extended federal liability protections to health student vaccinators.
Student advocacy efforts around vaccination education and access originally were proceeding on several separate trajectories. However in January 2021, sixth-year MD-PhD student Danielle Miyagishima and first-year MD students Hirsh Shekhar and Haleigh Larson realized their efforts would be more impactful if they strategically coordinated, leading them to co-found S-PHASEC (Stud