Get That Vaccination Now: Week of July 9th, 2021

Students, Faculty, Residents, Staff, Alumni, Board Members and Friends,

Good morning from a pretty soggy Elkins Park campus as Tropical Storm Elsa has been paying us a visit throughout the night. All of this morning’s rain hasn’t dampened the excitement of our Summer Enrichment Program students who started their in-person classes this week. Students from most of our other programs have also been very engaged in classes and labs which makes our campus a very busy, but fun place to be in the summer. In addition to all the great things happening on campus, here are some things that will also interest you:

NOA VIRTUAL CONVENTION: The National Optometric Association (NOA) 2021 Annual Convention is virtual this year. Starting today through Sunday, July 11, the online event will provide 15 hours of COPE approved continuing education. The chair of the National Medical Association (NMA) Ophthalmology section, Dr. Ninita Helen Brown, MD, PhD, will present with NOA president Dr. Sherrol A. Reynolds along with many more well-known speakers. To see the full schedule and register for a session or two over the weekend, click here. 

CIAO – CHOW: Last night we said farewell to our outgoing PCO residents and welcomed our class of new residents at the annual Ciao-Chow event. While normally held at one of our PCO faculty’s homes, this year we opted to hold the event at the Hafter Center to allow for more social distancing. As always, the evening allowed everyone to let our outgoing class of residents know how much we appreciated working with them and wish them the best as they prepare to launch their optometric careers and also welcome our new residents to the PCO/Salus team.

PCO WINS ESSILOR STUDENT BOWL: I know I wrote an addendum about this last week, but it’s so fantastic, I wanted to ensure it was included in the “real version” of the update. The Pennsylvania College of Optometry won the Essilor Student Bowl at Optometry’s Meeting last Friday evening in Denver!! Now, they just didn’t win it, they crushed it - one team member, in particular deserves special mention - Tyler Lesko - he pretty much carried the ball the whole length of the field for the event. We plan on honoring Tyler sometime in the near future but he needs to know how much we appreciate his efforts in bringing the Bowl back to PCO/Salus! Well done Tyler and our entire PCO team.

STUDENT AMBASSADORS: Salus University now has 17 students representing various academic programs who serve as student ambassadors at University events both on campus and in the community. Meet the student ambassadors representing what our Salus community is all about in the first of a three-part series.

NEW SALUS BOARD CHAIR: I am pleased to announce that, effective 1 July, Ms. Rebecca Delia became Chairwoman of our Board of Trustees. Ms. Delia joined our Board in 2018 and currently serves as Chair of the Finance Committee and a member of the Executive Committee and the Audit & Compliance Committee. She is currently Senior Vice President of Financial S&lutions LLC, a financial advisory firm to colleges and universities. Ms. Delia is a member of the advisory council for the Women’s Leadership Network of the United Way of the Capital Region and a Founding Board Member of Ladies First, a professional association of women engaged in the public finance industry.

FITNESS CENTER REMINDER: Sign-ups are still required for the Fitness Center at Hafter. You must reserve a workout block before you arrive, which you can do by selecting the "Book Class" tab in either the PTFitWorks app or on the salus.ptminder website. You can reserve up to five days in advance, must bring your Salus ID to scan into the building and must be vaccinated to utilize the Fitness Center. 

FACE MASKS: A reminder that if you’re working in any of our clinics or clinical procedure labs, you are required to wear a face mask, whether or not you are vaccinated. While required in those two areas, if you feel more comfortable wearing a face mask anywhere else on campus, please feel free to do so. All unvaccinated individuals are required to wear a face mask at all times while on campus and in our clinics.

OTI VIRTUAL SUMMER CAMP: The Occupational Therapy Institute (OTI) of Salus University is providing a virtual summer camp for children entering kindergarten and first grade. The program began this week and will run through the week of Aug. 9. This camp offers one daily activity, six days per week, to encourage the use of occupation-based skills through play. To read more, click here.

FINAL THOUGHTS: For those of us in healthcare who remember our basic sciences, we all understand that the more chances a virus has to replicate, the more chances it has to mutate. Well, that’s exactly what’s very troubling about all those folks who are refusing to get the very safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.

Fortunately for us, the five largest clusters of unvaccinated people are concentrated in the South and parts of the Midwest (see graphic). Even though Pennsylvania and our surrounding states are in much better shape, these large cohorts of unvaccinated people present a risk to all of us as they provide a host for the virus to replicate and potentially mutate to other, more virulent forms that might be resistant to existing vaccines. Right now, the current vaccines are very effective against all the variants of the virus, but there is no guarantee that will remain the case if given the chance to mutate on a larger scale. Given that fact, it is imperative for all of us to continue to help educate and convince those not vaccinated to get it done NOW. Not only are those unvaccinated people placing themselves at great risk, but they risk ruining the great progress we’ve had in slowing the spread of the virus. As a reminder, Salus will be requiring all students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated by August 13th, unless they have an approved medical or religious exemption.

If you know anyone not vaccinated, help them understand their decision doesn’t just affect them; it also affects all of us! We’re all in this together.

Have a great weekend. Be safe, stay hydrated in this heat and humidity, if you’re unvaccinated – GET THE JAB – and remember to wear a face mask when around others, look out for one another and remain SALUS STRONG!

Mike