Terry Goss Kinzy says her door is open to anyone who still has questions about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Prior to becoming president of Illinois State University, Kinzy served as vice president of research and professor in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Rutgers University. Kinzy holds a Ph.D. in biochemistry and said she’s drawing on her background as a scientist to help address any lingering concerns people may have about the vaccine.
“I will literally talk to anyone to answer their questions because I think we’ve got a lot of really good data that will allow people to reconsider a past decision they may have had about the vaccine,” Kinzy said at Friday's Board of Trustees meeting.
Kinzy said she’s had meetings with the athletics department as well as individual teams to address questions and concerns. She even answered questions from a scout for the Philadelphia Eagles when they ran into one another at a Redbird football practice.
“I gave him information – the article that had been written by our faculty – about COVID-19, and he shared it with his family,” Kinzy said.
93% of ISU faculty and staff and 78% of the student body are vaccinated against COVID-19. But Kinzy said vaccination efforts continue — there are clinics Monday and Tuesday at the Bone Student Center — and appointments can now be made online.
“So that’s an opportunity for students to go and have an important conversation with our skilled health care providers and ask their questions to receive the vaccination,” she said.
According to the latest data available from the university's COVID-19 dashboard, the campus testing positivity rate is 0.5%.
