UNC-Chapel Hill vaccinates hundreds of students on first day of eligibility
About 1,400 students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill were vaccinated against coronavirus on Wednesday, the first day most college students in the state became eligible for shots.
Posted — UpdatedOne of the vaccination clinics was at the Friday Center in Chapel Hill, where UNC Health has been giving shots to people since January – about 60,000 so far.
"It’s just pure excitement to be here," said Supradeep Madduri, who works full time as a pharmacy technician for UNC Health and gives vaccinations in his spare time.
Madduri recalled how UNC-Chapel Hill was in the national spotlight last fall after virus outbreaks forced the campus to halt in-person classes and send most students home after only a week. The rapid vaccine rollout is helping the university reach a sense of normalcy, he said.
"They learn to adjust and come up with a new game plan and figure out how to make it better, not just for the college campus but community in general," he said.
After studying public health at UNC-Chapel Hill, Madduri now is applying to medical school, and he's served on many fronts over the past year in the war against coronavirus, from sewing face masks to performing contact tracing to prepping vaccines for shots to actually giving the shots.
"I really wanted to be a part of this and interact with the people who are getting the vaccine," he said. "Everyone’s so happy to get the vaccine, and people share stories about seeing grandkids and being able to travel again. It’s a lot of energy here, and that’s the momentum we want – to keep moving forward and get everybody vaccinated and really get back to normal."
Like Madduri, Angela Thorton, a licensed practical nurse who usually works at a UNC Health dermatology office, has been redeployed to help in the vaccination effort.
"It’s helping mentally, physically and for the soul. People are like, 'We can get back to what we need,'" Thornton said. "No one’s trying to get accolades for it. It’s just what we want to do."
She said she's willing to continue vaccinating people at the Friday Center for as long as necessary to get past the pandemic.
"We’re part of something that’s going to be history for UNC and the state and the world. It’s a big thing," she said.
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