Claims It was an Honest Mistake
Hammond Health Center was recently found to have administered shots of off-brand orange juice, SunnyD, into students instead of the flu vaccine. Ithaca College offers free flu shots to students and staff, but it seems they might have missed the mark this year.
The college claims that this crisis was a result of a simple mix-up with the Campus Center dining hall. Boxes of SunnyD were sent to the health center, while boxes of the flu vaccine were sent to the dining hall. Fortunately, the dining hall had yet to utilize the vaccines in any of the drink machines at the time of this discovery. The college has filed a report with the shipping company and plans to sue; in the event that the college wins the court case, tuition is expected to increase by 4% next year.
Additionally, Hammond also blames some of the student volunteers, students from the School of Health Sciences and Human Performance, for how the SunnyD managed to make it into the arms and veins of so many students without being detected. Secretary John Tangerin claims he caught the volunteers smoking pot outside the building on their break. I asked the volunteers about this but they all declined, saying they would never smoke in broad daylight. I took a look outside the perimeter of the building myself; I found a couple of half-smoked joints but I can’t seem to remember where I put them.
Instead, I interviewed first-year student Amy Brands, one of the many who received the wrong shot. “I thought it felt weird,” she admitted. “I could feel how cold it was inside my arm. Also, the liquid in the syringe was this awful yellow color, but I just assumed everything was normal.”
Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, was admitted to the hospital roughly 40 minutes after receiving the shot because he was allergic to oranges. The student is expected to make a full recovery and will be back on campus on Monday.
Despite this mix-up, if students want to get into Hammond for a free actual flu shot, they have to sign up on a wait-list. The earliest available appointment to get stuck in the arm with a needle that will only take thirty seconds is March 20th (subject to change due to print release time of this article).
Hammond Health Center currently has a glowing 1.5 stars out of 5 on Google, based on 15 reviews. This number is expected to go down after the SunnyD crisis.
*Disclaimer: Hammond Health Center has no affiliation with Buzzsaw Magazine (or SunnyD, for that matter)
Sarah Moon is a second-year writing major who snorts powdered Airborne mix. You can reach them at [email protected].
Art by Treasurer Julia Batista.