Roxanna Miranda/The Rider Photo Illustration
Jacqueline Peraza | EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Less than a month before UTRGV goes on summer break, Scott Spear, medical director for Student & Employee Health, reminds the university community of the importance of getting vaccinated.
Spear said anyone who is not vaccinated should avoid traveling to help prevent catching the virus or spreading it to other unvaccinated individuals.
“[People] shouldn’t be traveling if they’re not vaccinated,” he said. “Everybody who’s thinking about going outside their home over the summer needs to get vaccinated.”
Emerging variants still pose a potential threat to vaccinated individuals across the country, Spear said.
“It looks like … the major variant, the variant from the United Kingdom–it looks like the two vaccines that [UTRGV is administering], the Moderna and Pfizer, are effective against [it], but we don’t know what will happen with future variants,” he said. “We still need to be wearing masks and social distancing.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website, “Early data show the vaccines may work against some variants but could be less effective against others.”
Spear said vaccination helps decrease the chances of new variants forming.
“The reason the vaccine, the vaccination, is important is because these variants arrive when somebody gets infected,” he said. “So, if somebody gets vaccinated, they’re much less likely to get it and they’re much less likely to produce variants.”
Students, faculty and members of the community who plan on traveling should continue to follow COVID-19 prevention measures even after being vaccinated, Spear said.
“Any place where [individuals] are going to be inside, with people who they don’t know what their vaccination status is, like airports, train stations [and] bus stations … those are all places where you need to wear your mask,” he said. “If you’re not fitted for a N95 respirator [then] use double masks. That is more effective at preventing the transmission and acquisition of the virus.”
The CDC website states that vaccinated travelers are not required to get tested unless required by the destination, must test negative for COVID-19 before boarding back to the United States and test for the virus 3 to 5 days after arriving in the U.S.
For a full list of recommendations and travel destination information, click here.
However, traveling abroad is something Spear advises the community to refrain from unless individuals are visiting family.
“This is not the year to travel abroad,” he said. “The only exception would be someone who has family abroad and hasn’t seen them in over a year.”
Spear said UTRGV recommends that anyone who travels abroad quarantine for 10 days after they come back, even if the person is fully vaccinated.
“Again, we don’t know if they could’ve acquired one of the variant strains,” he said. “Those [variant strains] may become less restrictive as we get more information, they may become more restrictive. So, if you travel abroad to visit your family and are going to a place where there aren’t that many people, you still run the risk.”
For people who are traveling within the country, Spear said going with other vaccinated individuals to visit outdoor areas while continuing to wear facial coverings and stay socially distant from other people is a safer summer option.
“Being socially distant … wearing masks and doing things outside [like] going to national parks and things like that, that’s going to be a safer thing for people to do,” he said. “You can go with those people to outside venues, to botanical gardens [and] the zoo. Again, wearing your mask there and keeping social distance. It’s much easier to do that when you’re outside. … Go to baseball games. Go to the beach. That’s outside and away from people.
Students and faculty may access and complete their vaccine portal here.
Eligible individuals looking to receive the vaccine from UT Health RGV at UTRGV may fill out the COVID-19 Vaccine Interest Registration form online.
