Getting vaccinated
COVID-19 boosters are offered in the University Employee Health Clinic (Room 1097-1 Boyd Tower) 7:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
COVID-19 boosters are also available in the Pediatric Conference Center (2415 JCP) from 7:15 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday (except on Sept. 21, Sept. 28, Oct. 11, and Oct. 19).
You can get your flu vaccination at the same time as your booster in the same locations outlined above.
COVID-19 boosters will only be offered at the UI Health Care main-campus and UI Health Care–Iowa River Landing.
The COVID-19 vaccine will be offered to UI employees at no cost.
Please remember to bring your employee ID badge with you to get vaccinated.
You do not need to bring you COVID-19 vaccination card.
You can view the date of your last COVID-19 vaccination on your COVID-19 vaccine card.
If you received your initial COVID-19 vaccinations through the University Employee Health Clinic, you can also view this information by logging into ReadySet. Once in ReadySet, choose “Results” under Test Results on the left-hand menu. In the list to the right, choose “COVID-19 (SARS-COV-2) IMMUNIZATION RECORD,” and “Date vaccine administered,” and in the middle of the page it will show the date it was received.
No. You are welcome to receive a booster through your primary care provider, through a local pharmacy, or elsewhere in the community.
At this time, only the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be offered.
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Eligibility
Everyone aged 6 months and over are recommended to receive the updated COVID-19 vaccine, at least two months after getting the last dose of any COVID-19 vaccine.
People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may get additional doses of updated COVID-19 vaccines. Talk to your healthcare provider about additional updated doses.
You can receive a booster at any time after recovering from COVID-19, though it is recommended you wait at least two to three months after recovering before receiving a vaccination, as your body will have some natural immunity post-infection.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends that all eligible persons, including pregnant and lactating individuals, receive a COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine series.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society of Maternal Fetal Medicine (SMFM) suggest lactating individuals get the vaccine. This means if you are lactating, you can and should get the COVID-19 vaccine. You can still breastfeed after receiving the vaccine.
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Vaccine side effects
- Arm pain
- Headache
- Fatigue
- Fever
- Chills
UI Health Care employees should report any side effects or concerns to the University Employee Health Clinic. You may also receive an internal Qualtrics survey following your vaccinations to ask about any side effects to track our internal experiences with the vaccine. There are additional optional tracking tools through the CDC called v-safe and VAERS. (See additional FAQs below.)
If you feel you are too unwell to work after receiving the vaccine, you should utilize regular sick leave. Acetaminophen and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications like ibuprofen can be used to provide relief from symptoms but is advised that these should not be taken before receiving the vaccine. If your provider has recommended that you avoid these medications due to your ongoing health conditions, please discuss options with your provider.
Yes, you may take Tylenol or ibuprofen for these side effects of the vaccine if do not have health conditions prohibiting their use. Please check with your primary care provider if you have questions.
V-safe is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tool that tracks your health after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Using it is entirely optional. UI Health Care employees should report any side effects or concerns to the University Employee Health Clinic first before using v-safe. V-safe is a smartphone-based tool that uses text messaging and web surveys to provide personalized health check-ins after you receive a COVID-19 vaccination. Through v-safe, you can quickly tell Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) if you have any side effects after getting the COVID-19 vaccine. Depending on your answers, someone from CDC may call to check on you. And v-safe will remind you to get your second COVID-19 vaccine dose if you need one.
VAERS, or the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, is used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to track adverse side effects of vaccines. It uses the tool, v-safe, to track personalized health check-ins after receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. Using VAERS through v-safe is entirely optional. UI Health Care employees should report any side effects or concerns to the University Employee Health Clinic first before using v-safe.
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Patients and the community
Information on how to schedule a COVID-19 vaccination through UI Health Care can be found through MyChart or by visiting uihc.org/covid-vaccine.
With the help of UI Health Care vaccine hesitancy expert Aaron Scherer, PhD, we’ve provided five techniques to help providers answer that question.
In addition, the guidelines below provide general recommendations for speaking with pediatric patients and their families about the COVID-19 vaccines.
Be empathic
It is possible that parents may be anxious and fearful of giving these vaccines to their children. Use empathy wherever the opportunity presents. “I understand that you may feel apprehensive about making this decision…”, “I can imagine that you may have concerns…”
Acknowledging
Acknowledge comments, e.g., “That’s a good question, thanks for asking….” “Thank you for sharing your concerns…..” “It is perfectly understandable to be concerned about new vaccines……”
Listening
Listen fully to the individual’s questions/concerns so they know they are being heard. Instead of asking a patient what they’re most concerned about and then immediately providing them with information addressing that concern, try asking, “What else are you concerned about?” Keep asking until the patient runs out of concerns and be sure to thank them for sharing their concerns.
Responding
Ask the patient if you may speak with them about your perspective on the COVID-19 vaccines. This helps the patient have an increased sense of personal control and will make them less likely to respond defensively to what you might have to say.
- Children and adolescents ages five and older are eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.
- The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children be vaccinated against COVID-19 when they are eligible to help protect themselves from severe illness and as an important step in ending the pandemic.
- Children can get COVID-19 just like adults. While oftentimes children with COVID-19 may not end up getting as sick as adults with COVID-19 might, they are still at risk for severe illness and can spread the virus to other children, as well as adults who may experience severe illness.
- Vaccinating children is safe and effective for your child and your family and is an important step to returning to normal things like in-person learning, sports, and activities.
- Although the speed of the COVID-19 vaccine development is faster than typical, COVID-19 vaccines are still required to go through the proper testing and analysis to make sure they are safe—no step in the process has been skipped.
- COVID-19 vaccines do not contain the virus, so they can’t give your child COVID-19. These vaccines contain genetic instructions that allow your child’s own cells to make one of the virus proteins. Your child’s immune system reacts to this protein to make antibodies and other immune cells that can recognize and fight COVID-19 if your child does get exposed.
- Both the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna vaccines are messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. They do not insert themselves in the genome, which is made of DNA. They cannot change your child’s DNA.
Read more strategies for addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy on The Loop.
You can find more information on our website at uihc.org/covid-vaccine.
Children can get COVID-19 just like adults. While oftentimes children with COVID-19 may not end up as getting sick as adults with COVID-19 might, they are still at risk for severe illness and can spread the virus to other children, as well as adults who may experience severe illness. Vaccinating children is safe and effective for your child and your family and is an important step to returning to normal things like in-person learning, sports, and activities.
Yes, if a patient is eligible, both flu and COVID-19 vaccines can be administered at the same visit. In addition to flu vaccine, the COVID-19 vaccine can be given at the same time as other vaccines as well.
Is your child scared of needles?
Updates and information for UI Health Care patients and members of the public can be found at uihc.org/covid-vaccine.
You can show proof of COVID-19 vaccination in either of the two ways listed below. Verbal report of COVID-19 vaccination is not accepted.
- Upload photo via Mychart
- Bring documentation in-person
Vaccination documentation can be a photo of your COVID-19 vaccination card or documented proof of vaccination from a pharmacy or health care provider.
Note that when a patient checks into an encounter, IRIS is queried and updated COVID-19 vaccination information will be available under both Health Maintenance and Immunizations. Staff can manually query IRIS without an encounter by opening the patient’s chart either by using Patient Station or the Open button, choosing the Immunizations tab and selecting Imm Registry to trigger a query.
Please see the following links for step-by-step instructions in Epic for validating COVID-19 vaccination status, entering historical immunization records, and reconciling outside immunizations.