Message from Campus Public Health Officer: Just the Vax Facts

July 23, 2021
Food & Health
Campus Affairs
Get the vax graphic with link to z.umn.edu/vaccine.
  1. We don’t want people to get sick with COVID-19 of any variant. Period.
     
  2. The risk of getting sick is increasing again because the delta variant is more transmissible. Where someone with the original COVID-19 infected an average of 2.5 people (there are those half people again), someone with the delta variant infects 3.5 to 4.0 people. The infection rate over time increases exponentially. In the timeframe where 1 original case would result in 24.24 additional cases, 1 case of the delta variant results in 66 additional cases.
     
  3. The delta variant is now responsible for more than 80% of the infections in the US.
     
  4. Over the past two months in the US, 99% of the deaths and 97% of the hospitalizations from COVID-19 were of unvaccinated people. This is no longer about breathing the crisp autumn air together, this is about preventing suffering.
     
  5. Vaccines are safe.
     
  6. Vaccines are effective against the variant. Can vaccinated people still get sick? Yes, but evidence so far shows that most people who have “breakthrough” infections after immunization have less severe symptoms.
     
  7. Respondents to a May campus survey reported that 96% had been or planned to be vaccinated. In the US, an average of 68.6% of adults have received at least one COVID-19 vaccination.
     
  8. Vaccination is free. Everywhere to everyone. It is available on the Twin Cities campus, or you can find vaccination sites via MN Vaccine Connector, vaccines.gov, texting your ZIP code to 438829, or calling 1-800-232-0233 to find locations near you.
     
  9. Want to protect yourself and others more? Continue to wear a mask. They’re still required in some situations, particularly anywhere health care is provided.
     
  10. The University continues to monitor the situation in real time and in all its complexity.

Why are there so many links? We understand that you need to make your own decisions and want you to have access to the same information we are using: scientific, reliable, accurate, and timely.

Jakub Tolar, MD, PhD
Campus Public Health Officer