On Saturday, May 22, the Dana Hall Health Center hosted a vaccination clinic for the Dana Hall community in collaboration with Osco Pharmacy. Initially, Osco Pharmacy had a vaccine inventory of 100 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but they were able to increase the doses. 

Pia Manna, director of the Health Center, has wanted to host a clinic since the early spring. Vaccines have been available in the United States and Massachusetts for five months now, but Dana Hall was only able to arrange this vaccination clinic now because the vaccines to become more readily available for private institutions. Also, the vaccines hadn’t been approved for 12-15 year olds until May 10, so the Middle School and younger students in the Upper School, who together make up a large percentage of our school’s population, would have been left out. 

The clinic was open to all members of the Dana Hall community and their families. It was hosted in Shipley Gym, with the pharmacists from Osco Pharmacy administering the shots. Christine Artica ‘22 passed by the clinic and said, “it was very clean and organized. It looked like a super easy process.”

To participate, individuals and families had to register for the clinic ahead of time through the Osco Pharmacy website. Osco Pharmacy is a local pharmacy chain that has franchises in Belmont, Waltham, West Roxbury, and other Boston suburbs.