On-Campus Vaccine Clinic

To: The Campus Community
From: Steve Atlee, Vaccine Working Group Chair and Deputy General Counsel
Date: March 11, 2021
Re: On-Campus Vaccine Clinic

On Friday, March 19, Caltech will host an on-campus vaccine clinic in partnership with Vons Pharmacy. The clinic will be restricted to Caltech community members who meet the state's eligibility criteria. This clinic will offer first doses of the Pfizer vaccine by appointment only. We anticipate holding a subsequent clinic to dispense second doses to those who participate in this first clinic.

Eligible members of the community will be invited in phases to sign up for a vaccine appointment through the Institute's Everbridge text and email communications systems. Instructions for accessing the clinic will be included in the clinic registration invitation and appointment confirmation messages. The initial invitation phase prioritizes Caltech personnel who are at the greatest risk of exposure or complications from SARS-CoV-2, including members of the community who are aged 65 or older and employees who are actively reporting on-site for research, academic, and support services. Further invitations will be extended as space permits. We encourage you to sign up as soon as you receive an invitation. At this time, Caltech is not able to provide vaccines for employees' family members or housemates. 

If you receive a link for Caltech's vaccination clinic, please do not share it with any individuals external to Caltech. This will only inhibit other eligible invitees from securing an appointment and may cause vaccines to be wasted. Institute employees will validate and confirm Caltech eligibility for all appointments, and any appointments for individuals who are not members of the Caltech community and who do not meet the state's eligibility criteria will be cancelled. 

As of March 1, Los Angeles County expanded its vaccine eligibility criteria to include several employment-based categories, including higher education workers. Under this expansion, Caltech employees meet the criteria for vaccination at many locations around the county, including large-scale public administration sites, local pharmacies, and private healthcare providers. 

Many members of the community already have availed themselves of these resources. The campus clinic is an effort to further facilitate equitable access to this critical life-saving tool and ensure that all eligible members who want to be vaccinated have a timely opportunity to do so. Caltech expects eligible members of the community seeking access to a vaccine to do so in accordance with all local and state public health guidelines and processes and in a responsible, fair, and accurate manner. 

The Institute asks all members of the community, including students, staff, postdocs, and faculty, to record their current vaccination status and update any future changes to that status in the Caltech COVID-19 Reporting Application. These attestation records will help to inform the Institute's pandemic-response planning effort and the resumption of on-campus operations.