This week, college students are starting to get vaccinated on some Central Florida campuses.

What You Need To Know

This is an age group where vaccine hesitancy is a concern.

Rollins College began vaccinations Tuesday morning for the campus community at the Bush Science Center.

Rollins College received 1,500 initial doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, which is enough for 750 people with two doses each.

Appointments were offered first to residential students, followed by non-residential students and faculty and staff.

The University of Central Florida has received enough Pfizer vaccines from the Florida Department of Health in Orange County to vaccinate about 6,000 students at a clinic in the Pegasus Ballroom opening Wednesday through Friday.

Dr. Rupali Limaye, associate scientist at Johns Hopkins University's School of Public Health, said data shows 18 to 25 year olds are split across the country on whether or not they want the vaccine.

"I don't want the vaccine because I don't really believe that COVID is that big a deal," Rollins College student Benny Binder said.

Limaye said the age group is more focused on liberty and autonomy over their own bodies.

"I'm super excited about it. I've been saying since the beginning, I'm going to get vaccinated as soon as I possibly can," UCF student Maddie Davis said.

Internal medicine specialist Dr. Aftab Khan said younger people have had less severe symptoms from COVID-19, but variants are more severe.

"Especially the B117 variant is highly contagious, and we know now from studies that it is also pathological. Meaning it can cause deaths more severe than the original virus," Khan said.

Rollins College is doing appointments windows Monday through Friday 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. for the rest of the year if enough vaccines are available.

Stetson University in DeLand is having a Moderna on-campus vaccine event Wednesday April 7.

​Rollins College President Grant Cornwell is planning for full face-to-face learning in the fall, and he said vaccines are the way to get there.

"We ordered 8,000 doses, and we have 1,500 delivered," he said.

More doses are expected to arrive on campus in the coming weeks, to meet the college's goal: "To have a fully-vaccinated campus next fall when we return. And to get there, I hope that we can get our students vaccinated before they go home for summer, because then we're done, then we're ready to plan for an in-person fall," Cornwell said.

Nacho Tunon from Spain was one of the first Rollins College students to get vaccinated on Tuesday.

He'll be able to get his second dose before he returns home next month.

"I appreciate they gave me a spot, because my appointment was Thursday, and I didn't have time to get my second dose before my flight," Tunon said.

​With an on-campus student body of about 2,000, we asked President Cornwell about requiring vaccines for the fall.

He said that's still an open conversation.