Starting a Back-to-Campus Plan and Accelerating Herd Immunity

The Lebanese American University (LAU) announced the start of its vaccination campaign for students, professors and employees, after the successful donation campaign carried out by the university to secure financial aid for the purchase of 80,000 Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines. This campaign is considered a basic step for students to return to the university campus in the upcoming fall 2021 semester and restore normal life, albeit with some necessary precautionary measures.

LAU President Dr. Michel Mawad confirmed that the main objectives behind the vaccination campaign are to immunize and protect the University family and help Lebanon reach mass immunity as soon as possible, especially before the winter season. This would not have been possible without the concerted efforts of various parties, particularly the Ministry of Public Health that facilitated the purchase of vaccines, the “Consortium” (a union of four university hospitals: the Lebanese American University Medical Center – Rizk Hospital, the American University of Beirut Medical Center, Saint George University Medical Center, and Hotel-Dieu University Hospital), which helped promote common motivation and unite efforts, in addition to donors and LAU friends, mainly Mr. Baha Hariri, who was the main supporter and donor of the largest financial assistance to this campaign since its beginning.

Dr. Mawad stressed that LAU’s achievements stem from its societal responsibilities and national commitments to confront this situation and help restore normal life in society as a whole, by increasing the frequency of vaccination to reach herd immunity. This is exactly what LAU has devoted its full attention to in the recent period.

LAU clarifies that vaccination will be provided at LAU Medical Center – Rizk Hospital free of charge, starting with priority groups based on medical conditions and age. Moreover, LAU will launch the “mobile clinic” to be able to reach more regions in Lebanon with the aim of expanding social awareness and providing the vaccine to the largest possible number of Lebanese.