MARIETTA, Ohio- Marietta College has halted vaccine distribution efforts after the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the agencies are reviewing six reported cases of 'rare and severe' blood clots in people who received the single dose vaccine. All of the cases are reportedly with women between the ages of 18-48 and the symptoms occurred 6-13 days after the treatment.
"As soon as we got the word yesterday, we explained to the entire campus that the decision was being made out of an abundance of caution at this point, and we advised what students next steps should be if they have certain symptoms, " said Tom Perry, Vice President for Communication and Brand Management at Marietta College. "At this point, we have not heard from any students have those side effects or complications from the vaccine."
The college partnered with Memorial Health System for the vaccine clinics, which were held at the Dyson Baudo Recreation Center on campus. 147 students and 3 college employees received the single dose vaccine at the first clinic on April 7.
"We have had two smaller vaccine clinics to get things started," Perry stated. "We were able to vaccinate approximately 200 students in the two clinics, which is lower than we were hoping for but not by too much because we were not anticipating a big turn out."
Perry says Marietta College wasn't expecting a big turnout in April is because students did want to experience the listed side effects during a bigger academic workload in the semester.
"A big reason why some students waited is the time of year," he explained. "They are preparing for finals and student athletes are still competing, so we kind of knew early on that it would be slow and likely pick up in the summer. With the pause, we don't know if it will be extended, so we decided to halt our clinics."
Marietta College is still assisting students and staff who are interested in receiving the Moderna or Phizer vaccine through the hospital.
