questions answered about vaccines

News you can use: Your questions about COVID-19 vaccines, answered

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SOU’s Student Health and Wellness Center is getting many questions about COVID-19 shots as the nationwide vaccination program gains momentum and potential availability of the vaccine on campus grows nearer. Current answers to some of the most common and relevant questions about the vaccines are covered here, including who should receive them and what to do next. Data about the vaccines is growing daily, so these answers may evolve or change.

Do I need to get vaccinated if I’ve already had COVID?

Yes. Being infected with COVID-19 may give you some natural immunity, but researchers aren’t sure how long that protection will last. Reinfection is possible and has happened, so you could be at risk for complications from the illness or for spreading the virus to others. It is strongly recommended that people who have already had COVID-19 get vaccinated. However, if you have had COVID-19 within the last three months, you can consider delaying vaccination until 90 days after your diagnosis, since reinfection is uncommon in the first 90 days after your first infection.

Will coronavirus mutations and variants reduce the vaccine’s protection?

At this time, researchers believe that both the Pfizer and Moderna two-dose vaccines provide protection against the main COVID-19 variants that were first identified in the U.K. and South Africa.

How soon after being vaccinated will I be protected?

It takes about two weeks after the second dose of a two-dose vaccine for your immune response to peak so that you have as much protection as possible.

After I get the first dose of a two-dose vaccine, do I still need to follow safety protocols?

Yes. You are not considered fully immunized until two weeks after the second dose, so during this time you can still get COVID and pass it to others. And even after your second dose, you still need to follow safety protocols.

After the first dose of a two-dose vaccine, do I still need to get a COVID test and quarantine if I develop symptoms or if I have been in contact with someone who has COVID?

Yes. The first dose of a two-dose vaccine provides only about 50 percent protection, so you can still get and transmit COVID. If you have had only one dose of vaccine and you develop symptoms or come into contact with someone who has COVID, then you will need to quarantine and get a COVID test.

If I’ve had a dose of one vaccine and then a different one becomes available, what should I do?

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) discourages people from mixing vaccines unless there is an exceptional situation, such as a significant shortage of the vaccine you received first.

After I get the second dose of a two-dose vaccine, do I still need to follow safety protocols?

Yes. Experts agree that everyone needs to continue following standard COVID precautions like wearing masks, social distancing, avoiding crowds, covering coughs and sneezes, washing hands and following CDC precautions regarding travel. This is a very effective vaccine, but about five out of every 100 people who receive it will not achieve immunity. We don’t know yet how likely it is that someone who is fully vaccinated can still get COVID without having symptoms and unwittingly infect others. Taking standard precautions helps protect you and those around you.

After my second shot, do I still need to quarantine or get a COVID test if I have been in contact with someone who has COVID or if I develop symptoms?

It depends. You are not required to quarantine or test if you meet all three of these criteria:

  • It has been at least two weeks since the second shot of a two-dose vaccine
  • It has been no more than 90 days since the second dose of vaccine
  • You have no symptoms

If you do meet all three criteria, then you do not have to quarantine or test. However, you will still need to monitor yourself for symptoms for 14 days after being exposed. If you do develop symptoms in those 14 days, then you must quarantine.

If you do not meet all three criteria, then you need to quarantine.

After I’m fully vaccinated, can I hang out with my friends and family? Can I travel?

There are no definite answers to these questions yet. As more people get vaccinated and the infection rate drops, it will become safer for small groups of vaccinated people to gather. For the moment, until vaccines are more widely available, experts recommend that people practice social distancing whenever possible, continue to wear masks and avoid large groups. Remember, it is still possible for someone who has been vaccinated to become infected and to possibly transmit the virus.

As vaccines become more widely available, travel will become less risky. However, not everyone will be vaccinated, the vaccines are not 100 percent effective and variants have developed that may be more transmissible, so air travel will continue to be riskier than other activities. The CDC regularly updates its travel recommendations, so check its website for updates.

Will getting vaccinated cause me to test positive for COVID?

No. None of the vaccines that are currently approved or that are being tested in the U.S. can cause you to test positive on a viral test. These are the standard tests used to see whether you currently have COVID-19 infection.

It is possible that you would test positive on an antibody (blood) test, but those tests are used only to see whether you have ever been previously infected with COVID-19.

How long will vaccine immunity last? Will booster doses or annual vaccines be needed in the future?

Researchers aren’t sure how long immunity from the vaccine will last and whether a booster dose will be needed.

Local Innovation Lab trains SOU interns as leaders

Local Innovation Lab prepares SOU interns to address disaster issues

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(Ashland, Ore.) — If you’re looking for a silver lining somewhere deep within the dual catastrophes of COVID-19 and last fall’s southern Oregon wildfires, look no further than the Local Innovation Lab. The collaborative project of Southern Oregon University and the Humane Leadership Institute is finding student interns and training them as leaders to tackle some of the sticky issues faced by communities and businesses affected by the disasters.

About 30 SOU students from more than 10 separate degree programs are receiving $1,000 stipends to participate as interns ­in the new program this year, and double that number are expected for the 2021-22 academic year. Four of this year’s fall term participants already have paid jobs as a result of their internships.

“Students are learning that humane leadership applies to how they lead themselves as well as how they lead others, and that it applies equally to their personal lives and their professional lives,” said Bret Anderson, SOU’s Economics Department chair and the university’s primary link to the Local Innovation Lab project.

“We are meeting students’ innate desire to contribute to their communities, especially in the wake of the Almeda Fire, while inviting them to apply their skills to impactful work,” he said.

The project grew out of a community conversation that was initiated last April, when it was apparent the COVID-19 pandemic would have deep and long-lasting effects on southern Oregon. Stephen Sloan of the Humane Leadership Institute, a local education think tank, convened a small group of people from Ashland and the Rogue Valley to discuss the emerging problems, needs and opportunities.

Those community conversations eventually grew to include more than two dozen participants, and one of the group’s first actions was to create a 501c3 nonprofit organization – Local Innovation Works – to carry out the first project, the Local Innovation Lab.

Community leaders in the larger group had discussed the need for interns to help businesses, social service agencies and local governments reboot their operations in ways that could help address pandemic-related issues. But the interns would need to be prepared to lead, rather than be led.

“I have heard over and over again that the effort required to bring a student intern up to speed is not worth the benefit of hiring an intern for many organizations,” Anderson said. “This was a gap that we identified pretty clearly. Universities do a great job of (creating) academic foundations for careers and employers do well with on-the-job training for their long-term employees, but the short-term student intern is left in the void.

“Thus, there was a need for a community organization to build a bridge between the academic community and organizations in the community that focused on the students’ own experience of leading themselves and those around them.”

Those who apply to participate in the program as student interns are required to take an SOU course on humane leadership, which emphasizes qualities such as compassion, consideration and encouragement. That course and participation in the internship program satisfy two of the three criteria needed to earn SOU’s digital badge or micro-credential in Values-Based Leadership. The third requirement is completion of any of several elective courses that focus on equity, diversity and inclusion, and the wider social context in which entrepreneurship and civic engagement take place.

The Local Innovation Lab, humane leadership course and Values-Based Leadership badge all are open to both enrolled SOU students and community members.

The lab was initially intended to launch with a cohort of interns for winter term, but the wildfires of early September “turned the dial up to 11,” Anderson said. It was instead unveiled as a pilot program with interns lined up after fall term had already begun.

Its organizers wove together the abilities of interns, the assets of donors and investors, and the needs of organizations affected by the pandemic or fires.

The project is clearly working.

One intern from SOU’s Financial Mathematics program is helping the city of Phoenix clean up the accounting for its water billings; a Continuing Education student is analyzing data from Medford’s Family Nurturing Center to better map social service outreach efforts to outcomes. Another student is helping create a community investment fund by looking at gaps between local banks’ loan terms and the ability of underserved entrepreneurs to get credit. Yet another is working “her dream job” with the Gordon Elwood Foundation, creating a “visually appealing, accessible online database profiling key funders in the Southern Oregon region.”

Two other interns are working with the nonprofit Remake Talent to create an interactive recovery dashboard using ArcGIS and to present the evolving network of fire relief organizations that provide resources to the Rogue Valley.

“Students get a real-world experience of impact, collaboration and reality,” Anderson said. “They get a sense of the practical utility of their education. They get a break from theory and a deep dive into the challenges of trying to get important things done with other people.”

SOU alum and former Hawai'i mayor Harry Kim

Family: SOU’s connection with former Hawai’i mayor

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Southern Oregon University played a big part in the family of former Hawai’i County Mayor Harry Kim, who received his bachelor’s degree in 1966 and master’s degree in 1967. He met his wife, Roberta, while he was an undergraduate, and one of his sons also graduated from the university and met his future partner there.

“SOU is a family thing,” Kim said. “It’s been with us and connected us with people we love.”

Kim grew up in Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i, and served as an Army medic. His first trip to the mainland didn’t occur until after he was honorably discharged from the Army in the 1960s. When he landed in Medford to attend what was then Southern Oregon College, Kim was a bit stunned.

“I remember, it was January 11, 1964,” he said. “Medford was dark and foggy, and I was wearing the wrong clothes for the weather. I thought to myself, ‘what the hell am I doing here?’”

It did not take long, however, for his impression of Oregon to change. After meeting the staff and some faculty members, Kim knew he was in the right place.

“There was so much kindness and support,” he said. “I didn’t doubt that I belonged there.”

Kim was the youngest of eight children from Korean-American immigrants in Hawai´i.

“Like many immigrants who came to the island in the early 1900s, my father worked for a sugar plantation, and life was hard,” he said.

From a young age, Kim got used to waking early and working long days – habits he has kept throughout his life. The family lived in a one-bedroom house with no electricity or running water.

“People in our community knew the value of working together and supporting one another,” Kim said. “Families helped each other in order to make things better. SOC was like that, too. People were there for you.”

Kim said the relationships he formed in college were a constant reminder of what is truly important in life.

“I always tell young people not to place the value of yourself on material things,” he said. “Measure your life by the people you love and the people who love you.

“I learned that as a child, and I saw people model it at SOC all the time. There was a totality of niceness, both on campus and around town.”

Kim knew he wanted a career in which he could help people, and his time at SOC helped him find the path.

“SOC opened my eyes to a lot about the world,” Kim said. “I learned so much outside of textbooks. I remember learning about the hardships people faced in other countries and how America helped them or allowed them to make it their home.”

He decided in college that he wanted to improve people’s lives through his work.

Kim graduated with a bachelor’s degree in education and sociology in 1966. He continued his studies and earned a master’s degree in economics the following year. He returned to Hawai´i and became a high school teacher, counselor and football coach.

He later worked as a civil defense administrator for the county government. Kim didn’t expect to still be serving the people of Hawai´i some 20 years later, when he was first elected mayor in 2000. He served from 2000 to 2008, then served a third four-year term from 2016 to 2020. He lost his race for a fourth term last summer.

As mayor, he advocated for education and economic development and worked to mitigate the county’s homeless issues. Among the biggest challenges, however, came after the devastating Kilauea Volcano eruptions in 2018. Then 78 years old, Kim was determined to help citizens recover from the disaster, and he kept a heavy work schedule despite being hospitalized twice for heart problems and pneumonia. Kim was awarded a prestigious Homeland Heroes award for his efforts to keep the people of Hawai´i County safe.

Kim was awarded the SOU’s Stan Smith Alumni Service Award in 2019. He said that when reflecting on the university and its impact on his life, he often remembers a teacher who reminded him of the importance of listening.

“He’d say, ‘Good grades don’t make you a good student – opening up your mind makes you a good student,’” Kim said. “Learning isn’t just memorizing facts, it’s being able to listen to others and being open to new information. So, I try to always be open. And to listen.”

Shared from the Fall 2019 issue of The Raider, SOU’s alumni magazine

SOU will skip shortened football season

SOU opts out of spring football season

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(Ashland, Ore.) – The Southern Oregon University football team will forgo the shortened spring football season and look toward the fall, SOU Director of Athletics Matt Sayre informed Frontier Conference officials on Friday, Feb. 12.

“We don’t make this decision lightly, and know there will be some disappointed Raiders,” Sayre said. “But the goal is a quality, high-level playing experience, and we feel much better about our ability to provide that six months from now.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced earlier in the week that the Oregon Health Authority would revise guidelines that had halted full-contact sports in the state during the pandemic, but the timeline for a return to regular activity remains uncertain. The first contest on SOU’s four-game Frontier schedule – which was reduced from the standard 10-game slate after being postponed in the fall – was set for March 20.

“We feel we are not prepared for the rigors and intensity of a college football season, largely because our players haven’t tackled, blocked or had contact of any kind in 450 days,” Sayre said. “It’s only fair to make this decision now for our Frontier Conference partners to be able to reschedule and adjust travel plans, and for our student-athletes to have a definitive direction.

“We’ve had conversations with colleagues at Portland State University, University of Montana and other regional institutions about their decisions to opt out of competition this spring and gained good insight into the value of a clear direction with an emphasis on the fall of 2021.”

SOU will plan to conduct a regular spring practice schedule. Each of the team’s seniors will have the option of returning in the fall.

“It’s an extremely difficult decision and heartbreaking for our seniors who are looking at options for after college, but it is the decision that’s in the best interest of our program,” said Raiders head coach Charlie Hall. “We can prepare our team in a traditional manner and be ready for the fall.”

This story is reposted from souraiders.com.

New storage facility checks the solar and recycling boxes

New SOU storage facility is doubly green

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University has completed a new storage facility at Raider Stadium that addresses sustainability on two fronts – it includes the university’s ninth array of solar panels, and the structure itself was created from recycled shipping containers.

The new facility, which will be used for storage of Athletic Department equipment and supplies, is SOU’s second net-positive building – the renewable energy it produces is greater than what it consumes. The first was SOU’s Student Recreation Storage Building, built in 2018 with solar installed in 2019.

“SOU is wholly committed to the pursuit of sustainability in both construction and day-to-day operations,” said Rebecca Walker, the university’s sustainability and recycling manager. “This project demonstrates that when we think differently and creatively, sustainability can make both financial and environmental sense.

The new storage facility’s solar panel installation was paid for by a fund that is fed in part by other energy savings projects on campus. The fund receives money from sources including energy savings incentives and credits from the university’s natural gas company, recycling receipts and other sustainability-related income sources.

The building itself – located behind the stadium’s east bleachers – is made from six recycled railroad shipping containers. The university repurposed three containers that we already on campus and purchased another three for $10,500 from Oregon Cargo Containers of Grants Pass.  The solar panels, installed by True South Solar of Ashland, will produce 49.68 kilowatts of electricity – enough to power about five typical homes.

“Athletics was in need of safe and adequate storage,” said SOU Athletic Director Matt Sayre. “What was designed for that purpose by the SOU Facilities Management and Planning Department and architect Matt Small – using rail boxcars and a plan to collect solar energy from the roof of that structure – is an asset Raiders can be proud of.”

The new project pushes SOU’s total solar energy generation capability to more than 430 kilowatts. The university has a total of seven other solar arrays on six buildings on the Ashland campus and one at the Higher Education Center in Medford.

Output from SOU’s solar facilities is typically fed back into the electrical grid and credited to SOU’s accounts, reducing the university’s utility bills.

SOU’s first solar installation was a 24-panel, 6-kilowatt array that was placed on Hannon Library in 2000 and it still generating electricity at 70 to 80 percent efficiency.

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The Indigenous Gardens Network will promote access to "first foods" by Native Americans

Indigenous Gardens Network receives Oregon Cultural Trust grant

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(Ashland, Ore.) — Southern Oregon University, tribal partners and others have received a $35,483 grant from the Oregon Cultural Trust to initiate the Indigenous Gardens Network – a hub for conversation and coordination around traditional food gathering areas throughout southwestern Oregon.

The Indigenous Gardens Network is intended to restore areas where “first foods” and other culturally significant items can be cultivated, harvested and made accessible to Indigenous people. First foods are plant and animal species that Native Americans traditionally relied upon for subsistence, medicine and ceremonial uses. The network that will be funded by the new Oregon Cultural Trust grant will pull together new and existing resources to address urgent issues such as food security, climate change and Indigenous food sovereignty.

“The Indigenous Gardens Network centers the knowledge and expertise of Native people and communities and approaches all projects with a robust sense of accountability to them,” said Brook Colley, chair of the SOU Native American Studies Program and principal investigator on the OCT grant.

“(The network) will be Indigenous-led, driven by their needs and solutions, and based on mutual respect,” Colley said.

The project is a regional partnership that brings together diverse partners including tribes, educators, conservation organizations and land managers or owners to address barriers to first food access and cultivation. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians of Oregon, Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, Vesper Meadow Education Program and other regional partners are joining SOU on the project.

A history of genocide, forced treaties and removal from ancestral lands created a pervasive, detrimental legacy for Indigenous people, many of whom remain displaced from southwestern Oregon. Several tribes from the region were forcibly relocated to Siletz and Grand Ronde reservations during the mid-1800s, and descendants continue to live there as citizens of the Grand Ronde and Siletz tribes.

Many members of those tribes have not re-established the annual food-tending practices of their ancestors for reasons including a lack of access to public and private land, scarcity of financial and human resources, concerns over safety and prejudice, divergence between Indigenous and Western perceptions of land use, and degradation of Indigenous gardens caused by ranching and other industries.

The Oregon Cultural Trust grant will enable the partner organizations to initiate the Indigenous Gardens Network, while additional funding sources will be sought for follow-up efforts. The network will work to re-establish specific first foods, medicines, materials and landscapes in southwestern Oregon, and to engage both private and public partners in supporting tribal access to – and stewardship of – critical cultural resources.

The Indigenous Gardens Network supports tribes and other Native communities in building sustainable food systems that improve health and well-being, strengthen food security and increase their control over Indigenous agriculture and food networks.

The Indigenous Gardens Network is also supported through the SOU Foundation. Those wishing to contribute to this work may make a donation online or contact Brook Colley (colleyb@sou.edu) for more information about the Indigenous Gardens Network. Information on donating to the Oregon Cultural Trust is available on the organization’s website.

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Food drive seeks donations to SOU Student Food Pantry

Employees and others urged to help SOU students by participating in governor’s food drive

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SOU President Linda Schott has reached out to the university’s employees, asking them to help reduce food insecurity on campus by donating as they are able to the annual Governor’s State Employee Food Drive, which runs through February. All food or money contributed at SOU will go directly to the Student Food Pantry.

“I recognize that we are all in difficult times, but for those of you who are able, please consider helping the Student Food Pantry reach its goal of raising $5,000 this month to help sustain its charitable mission through the year,” the president wrote in an email to employees.

A 2018 survey in the “Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition” found that 43.5 percent of U.S. college and university students face food insecurity – a much higher rate that the 13 percent of households nationwide that were found in an earlier study. Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon – a Portland nonprofit that works with students, organizations, schools and legislators – polled 197 students last year from 11 public colleges and universities, and found that 71 percent had experienced food insecurity in the previous 12 months.

“The most difficult thing about college should be the academic coursework, but it isn’t,” one student from Columbia Gorge Community College told the nonprofit. “The most difficult thing is trying to survive without incurring soul-crushing debt or breaking yourself by working extra jobs to make ends meet. ‘Choosing’ between buying books for your class, medicine you need to live and food to eat isn’t really a choice – it’s just picking the least horrible path.”

SOU’s Student Food Pantry provided 195 bags of 10 food items each to more than 90 students facing food insecurity during fall term 2020.

Employees and others who wish to help SOU students by donating to the Governor’s State Employee Food drive will have three options this year:

  • Non-perishable food donations can be dropped off at the Stevenson Union’s Welcome Desk anytime from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday through Friday. Items the Food Pantry could use the most include hearty soups (both meat and vegetarian), instant oatmeal, non-dairy shelf-stable milk, canned beans, canned vegetables and granola bars. Contact the Student Food Pantry at foodpantry@sou.edu with any questions.
  • Anyone can make a contribution via a one-time donation by visiting the Food Pantry website. The form is always available and donations are accepted throughout the year.
  • SOU employees are encouraged to sign up for monthly payroll contributions to provide ongoing support for the Student Food Pantry. You may fill out a Payroll Deduction Form and send the electronic copy directly to the SOU Foundation at SOUFoundation@sou.edu by Feb. 28. Those completing the form should select “other” and fill in “SOU Food Pantry” as the fund.
Philosopher Graham Harman to lecture in Campus Theme series

SOU’s 2021 Campus Theme takes on “Thinking Uncertainty” and “Justified Untrue Belief”

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SOU’s Campus Theme lecture series – which has focused each academic year since 2009-10 on a specific concept – is taking on the idea of “Thinking Uncertainty” this year and continue on Wednesday, Feb. 10, with an online lecture on “Justified Untrue Belief” by prominent philosopher Graham Harman of the Southern California Institute of Architecture.

Knowledge has been defined since the days of Plato as justified true belief – that the conditions of truth, belief and justification equate to knowledge. Harman’s lecture will put a contemporary twist on that description by examining justified untrue beliefs.

Harman maintains that knowledge cannot be “justified true belief” because – according to his philosophical concept of “object-oriented ontology” – a thing cannot be simultaneously justified and true. His concept of object-oriented ontology, or the nature of being, holds that no two entities – including human thought – can make contact without mediation from a third. He suggests there can be “justified untrue belief,” including science; and there can be “unjustified true belief,” including both philosophy and art.

Harman’s lecture will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday on a Zoom webinar at https://sou.zoom.us/j/81549473609.

Other events on the schedule for this year’s Campus Theme series include:

  • “Uncertainty and the Buddhist Perspective” on Thursday, Feb. 25, with Dan Le, a full-time volunteer with the Compassionate Service Society in Anaheim, California; Le is a practitioner in both the Zen and Huayan traditions of Buddhism. “
  • A Pathway to Peace: Making Friends with Uncertainty,” on Thursday, March 4, with Fred Grewe, an ordained minister who has companioned with almost 3,000 dying patients over the past 13 years at Providence Hospice in Medford.

Each year’s Campus Theme series aims to create opportunities for students, faculty, staff and community members to engage in intellectually stimulating conversations. The Campus Themes address big questions, enable deep understanding and broaden the intellectual horizons of participants.

This year’s theme of “Thinking Uncertainty” picks up where last year’s theme of “Uncertainty” left off. Campus Themes in previous years have ranged from “Civility” to “Race” to “Truth.”

Harman, Wednesday’s speaker, holds the titles of distinguished professor of philosophy and Liberal Arts Program coordinator at the Southern California Institute of Architecture in Los Angeles. He is the author of 18 books, most recently “Art and Objects” (Polity, September 2019).

He received his bachelor’s degree from St. John’s College, his master’s degree from Penn State University and his doctorate from DePaul University. He has taught at American University in Cairo and the European Graduate School, and has been a visiting faculty member at the University of Amsterdam, University of Turin and Yale University.