When the Fort Washington Armory opened as a COVID-19 vaccination site in January 2021, Carly Galitz and Jennifer Shahar, both third-year DDS students at the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM), were among its first volunteer vaccinators.
“It was such an eye-opening experience,” said Shahar, and it was in part what motivated them to become “vaccine champions”—members of the Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) committed to educating others about COVID-19 and promoting vaccination. The two students also took inspiration and encouragement from an early success with Shahar’s father.
“He was hesitant about the vaccine,” said Galitz. “But when Jen explained it to him simply, he said, ‘Oh, okay, it makes sense. Sure, I’ll get that.’ So we thought if we could do that with everyone, maybe more people would understand that it’s not as scary as it might seem and be more open to it.”
In an effort to educate dental patients and the wider public, Galitz and Shahar produced an animated video, with English and Spanish versions, to present the fundamentals of COVID-19 vaccination such as antibodies and herd immunity “in a fun, easy way,” said Shahar. The video is posted across the College of Dental Medicine’s website.