As the Pitt community gears up for cold, flu and COVID season, students are staying mindful of preventative measures such as vaccines to stay healthy.
Pennsylvania currently has moderate viral activities of COVID according to wastewater monitors, as a strain spreads across the country. Some students at Pitt report testing positive for COVID.
Katherine Helwick, a junior pharmacy student, tested positive for COVID on Sept. 5 and had moderate symptoms including coughing, congestion and brain fog.
“The worst part of it was brain fog because I’m trying to catch up with all my work, and my brain is just not functioning. I still feel like I’m playing catch-up,” Helwick said. “Even the process [recovering from COVID] is isolating, hearing all my friends outside having fun and I’m just stuck in my room.”
Helwick said she felt classes weren’t very accommodating for the toll that sickness takes on a person.
“I feel like [professors] don’t take into account that you’re sick, and you’re going to be behind,” Helwick said. “Some professors won’t even post slides or do videos, so in reality, sometimes you feel obligated to go to class to keep up with your academics.”
Helwick said she had gotten the original COVID vaccine during the pandemic and received a booster shot this year in June. However, she said her pediatrician’s office had a deadline for the vaccine.
“I had to get it [the vaccine] before a certain date because they were about to expire or something like that,” Helwick said. “The office told me that boosters weren’t going to be available after some date in June.”
Sangita Das-Quigley, a junior neuroscience major who tested positive for COVID on Sept. 7, said the community is responsible for building group immunity against COVID.
“Make sure people aren’t forgetting about COVID,” Das-Quigley said. “The biggest things are to be aware of the risk you’re putting yourself at or the risk you’re putting other people at when you’re not taking precautions.”
Charles Guthrie, executive director of Student Health Services at Pitt, said there is no spike in cases directly affecting Pitt’s campus in comparison to the rest of Pittsburgh.
“We are not actively tracking the number of positive COVID patients,” said Guthrie.
Guthrie said that despite no noticeable trends in cases of spiking, students can still take action to reduce the risk of a possible spike.
“Because COVID tends to spread more easily and can have more significant health consequences than the common cold, we recommend students maintain a higher level of awareness and precaution,” Guthrie said. “This means getting vaccinated if able, isolating if sick and considering mask use in higher risk situations, steps that go beyond the typical seasonal flu precautions.”
Guthrie said Student Health Services provides resources to help infected students and limit the spread. They encourage sick students to stay home and provide testing for COVID if it is needed. They also promote vaccinations as a way of limiting the spread.
“We strongly encourage students to take preventative steps early in the semester, including vaccination for both flu and COVID, if able,” said Guthrie.
Pitt’s Vaccination and Health Connection Hub currently has the adult Pfizer and Moderna 2025-26 COVID-19 vaccines in stock and ready to distribute. The Hub also has the 2025-26 vaccine for patients younger than 65, with clinics on Oct. 1, 2 and 3 at Salk Hall.
The FDA narrowed its approval for the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 and older those at high risk of developing severe illness from the virus in late August. More recently, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices at the Centers for Disease Control recommended people consult with a clinician before receiving the COVID-19 booster.
Afshin Beheshti, a professor of surgery and computational and systems biology and COVID-19 researcher, said the newly emerging “Stratus” strain is a combination of two mutations, which could be the reason for an increased number of cases.
“Every new variant that takes over has growth advantages,” said Beheshti.
Beheshti said staying up to date on vaccinations reduces the spread of the existing strains and the risk of a new strain emerging.
“If you don’t get vaccinated, the spikes are gonna get bigger,” Beheshti said. “Then potentially, there might be a completely new name, a new strain that pops up that will be not good for society.”
Beheshti said the recent vaccine regulation changes are making it much harder for people to actively stay up to date with the necessary vaccines.
“Availability is hard in some states. This is why things start coming back,” Beheshti said.