COVID-19 Health and Wellness Information |
Below, for your reference, is the full text of Dr. Roy Weiss’ video message (above) to the University of Miami community. Dr. Weiss is the University’s chief medical officer for COVID-19 and chair of the Department of Medicine.
Greetings everyone. And for students who are busy moving in and preparing to start classes, welcome back to campus. While the weather hasn’t exactly cooled down, we are ready for the fall semester to get underway for all ’Canes. For your safety, we’re still implementing guidelines based on best practices to keep everyone protected during this latest surge of COVID cases.
All University of Miami faculty and staff are required to get a COVID-19 vaccine unless they have a religious or medical exemption. And we continue to encourage all students to receive their vaccines.
For those who still need to get their vaccines, we are partnering with Walgreens to provide a convenient, on-campus COVID-19 vaccination clinic site in the StormSurge Room of the Hurricane Food Court. I visited the site earlier this week and it will be operating Monday through Thursday of next week.
In the meantime, masks are required in all indoor public spaces, including classrooms. We’ll continue to evaluate our mask policy based on best public health policies and the current conditions.
It’s important to note that reports of breakthrough cases of COVID in vaccinated people is not a sign that the vaccines don’t work. They do. They are meant to prevent severe illness and keep infected individuals out of the hospital. They are doing their job. More than 95 percent of hospitalized COVID patients are unvaccinated.
This week we learned that booster shots of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to extend the immunity against COVID will be available to U.S. adults starting in September. We will keep our university community updated on third dose supplies in the coming weeks.
I’d like to leave you with a positive thought, as always. The late writer Leo Buscaglia wrote that “too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.”
We might need to remain physically distant right now, but we always have the ability to smile, be kind, and listen.
We are in this together and I’m here to answer your questions.
I wish you good health, happiness, and success.
Roy E. Weiss, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Medicine
Chair, Department of Medicine
Chief Medical Officer for COVID-19 |
