Current State of Ohio Vaccine Planning

Many members of our campus community may be wondering about COVID-19 vaccine distribution and potential eligibility to receive the vaccine due to university affiliation. 

Vaccine distribution in the U.S. is controlled at the state level. And while our state leaders and public agencies are working hard to serve our communities, at this time, Ohio is scheduled to receive a total of 100,000 doses per week, which represents less than 1% of the state’s total population. We expect that additional vaccine manufacturers will be approved in the coming weeks, which will add to vaccine supply.

At this moment, the University of Cincinnati does not currently have nor control any vaccine doses. Ohio has elected to currently distribute vaccines to the following entities that, in turn, are required to follow state-mandated distribution protocols.  

• Health care systems (UC Health and several others) 
  
  
• Health departments (Ohio Department of Health, Hamilton County Public  Health, and City of Cincinnati Health Department among others) 
  
  
• Large commercial pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens, and Kroger). 

If you as a member of our university community qualify to receive the vaccine due to current distribution protocols related to age, underlying condition, health-care or professional role associated with COVID care, or affiliation as a K-12 educator, I encourage you to seek and accept such vaccination.

Since the current distribution model may change in the future, we will continue to plan at the university level to become part of the solution, working in partnership with Governor Mike DeWine as well as state and local health experts, if and when institutions of higher education are tapped as part of distribution models. The university’s COVID Response Team has a physician-led subcommittee working on logistics planning around distribution if UC is allocated vaccine doses at some future point.

Please continue to visit UC’s Public Health web site and the links available on the site’s vaccine page for the latest available information. 

On behalf of the UC COVID Response Team, please continue to practice healthy behaviors including use of facial coverings, social distancing, hand hygiene and cleaning of physical spaces. Behavior is key in preventing virus spread and remains important even after receiving the vaccine.

 Sincerely,   

Arthur Pancioli, MD
Chair, COVID Response Team 
Chair Department of Emergency Medicine 
UC College of Medicine