Clinical studies have not found the COVID-19 vaccine to affect fertility or the health of the newborns, according to a University release.
With the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s recent authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for 12- to 15-year olds, researchers hope the findings will help reduce vaccine hesitancy, and combat vaccine myths spreading among parents, the release said.
Only 50 percent of parents have said they will vaccinate their newly eligible children, Feinberg Prof. Robert Murphy said in the release. This vaccination rate will likely increase as parents realize the benefits of vaccination with their children returning to in-person school, Murphy added.
When Ph.D. student Sarah Peko-Spicer came to Northwestern in 2015, she worried about finding community as one of two Black graduate students in the statistics department. But the transition was not as difficult as she had anticipated, Peko-Spicer said.
“I remember finding this really thriving community of Black graduate students who were well supported by The Graduate School,” she said. “Many of us felt like TGS was a place that was really highlighting the successes of historically excluded students and constantly making space to celebrate them.”
Peko-Spicer attributed this environment, in part, to the work of former dean Dwight McBride, who left TGS in 2017 to become Emory University’s provost. Teresa Woodruff succeeded McBride, before leaving to become provost at Michigan State University. Dean Kelly Mayo, who has been at NU since 1985, then took over as interim dean and was appointed to the post permanently as of May 1. For some graduate student activists, his appoint
When Weinberg junior Alex Turntine reached out to Counseling and Psychological Services in the winter, she was put on a waitlist because the center did not staff any specialists who could address her needs.
While CAPS gave her multiple therapist recommendations in the Evanston and Chicago area, Turntine said most of the locations had unaffordable out-of-pocket costs. She set out to find a therapist herself.
“I just didn’t know where to start,” Turntine said. “I also just don’t have it in me to go six months with a therapist to realize that they’re not a good fit, especially because this is a critical time, with school and the pandemic.”
Northwestern University Health Service will work with students who received their first COVID-19 vaccine dose outside of the University but are having difficulty obtaining their second, according to a Monday email.
Vice President for Operations Luke Figora also sent out a form in which students who have not been vaccinated can sign up to be invited to a future, on-campus vaccination event.
In addition to the on-campus clinics, the University announced in April that students, faculty and staff can get vaccinated through appointment invitations from Northwestern Medicine. Students are still welcome to book appointments at these Evanston vaccination clinics, Figora wrote in the email.
Classes running longer than three weeks this summer will break for an extended Fourth of July holiday weekend, Provost Kathleen Hagerty announced in a Thursday email.
The extended weekend will be two days longer than in past years, running from July 1 to 5, Hagerty wrote. Some Northwestern buildings will remain open but Norris University Center and the library will be closed, she added.
Two- and three-week classes running during this time will not have the extended weekend, Hagerty wrote, but faculty and staff required to work on July 1 and 5 may take two extra days off at any point before August 31, 2022 as compensation.