Watch as UC Berkeley gives first COVID-19 vaccine doses

Campus is getting vaccine into people's arms "as quickly as we can"

A nurse with red hair gets the COVID-19 vaccine while wearing a mask — A nurse gets the COVID-19 vaccine

January 15, 2021

UC Berkeley administered the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to staff on Thursday. (UC Berkeley video by Roxanne Makasdjian and Clare Major)

UC Berkeley Nurse Melody Heller was among the first UC Berkeley staffers to receive the COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday.

“It gets me one step closer to giving my parents a big hug because I haven’t in over a year,” she said after getting her first of two doses. “I’m very thankful for this … it gives us the opportunity to take care of a lot more patients.”

Berkeley received a small number of vaccine doses earlier this week and is “getting them into people’s arms as quickly as we can,” said Anna Harte, medical director of University Health Services.

Campus healthcare workers will be the first to be vaccinated, followed by critical essential workers and Berkeleyans over the age of 65, Harte said. More details about the campus vaccine plan can be found here.