Students, employees and all visitors are welcome for free vaccination
While many vaccination centres are closing, VUB officially opened a vaccination point on its Etterbeek campus today. From 27 September, there will also be a vaccine centre on the Jette campus. Through this initiative, VUB, as an urban engaged university, is playing its part in the battle for a higher vaccination rate in Brussels. Ahead of the official start of the academic year next week, international students and VUB employees who have not yet been vaccinated are urged to get vaccinated. As well as students, everyone is welcome for a free dose of the single-shot J&J vaccine.
The vaccination centre was opened today in the presence of Dirk Devroey (dean of VUB’s Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy), Marc Noppen (CEO of UZ Brussel) and Jolien Van Lersberghe (VUB medical student and student representative), who also administered the vaccines. The action is part of the effort to boost vaccination rates and to continue teaching under code green coronavirus restrictions, which allow full capacity on campus. “It’s important as a university that we play our part in the vaccination campaign. A high vaccination rate is the only path to normality, so we must do everything we can to increase it,” said Devroey.
Research shows that young people in Brussels have little interest in the vaccine. “With the vaccination point on the VUB campus in Etterbeek, we want to appeal to students and thus make it easier to come and get a shot. But we are also aiming to attract international students, because they often haven’t had the chance to get vaccinated in their home country,” said Noppen.
The vaccination point is located on the Brussels Humanities, Sciences & Engineering Campus in Etterbeek, in the containers in front of the Braem building, next to building B. The entire VUB community and their families, as well as Brussels residents, can go there for a vaccine on various days between 16 September and 8 October. A vaccination point will also follow in Jette, from 27 September.