Penn State Mobile Clinic Bringing Free Flu Shots, COVID-19 Boosters to State College

A new initiative from Penn State is aiming to help State College locals catch up on their seasonal vaccinations.

Penn State’s LION Mobile Clinic will set up shop on Wednesday at Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza, 125 S. Fraser St. in downtown State College. The health care initiative on wheels will provide flu shots and COVID-19 boosters to community members at no cost.

Wednesday’s clinic will take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. According to the State College borough, those who stop by will receive a same-day voucher for a free donut at Duck Donuts, located in the plaza.

The LION Mobile Clinic is open to those 5 and older with no appointments or health insurance information required. It will offer both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s most recent COVID-19 booster shots.

Made possible through the Penn State College of Medicine, the student-run LION Mobile Clinic works to increase health care access to under-resourced communities in Pennsylvania, starting with Snow Shoe earlier this year. Those efforts will continue in Bellefonte with a flu and COVID-19 vaccination clinic from 1 to 4 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 5, at the St. John Lutheran’s parking lot, 216 McAllister St.

Dr. Michael McShane, an assistant professor of medicine at Penn State, says initiatives like the LION Mobile Clinic make a tangible difference in communities across Pennsylvania.

“Mobile clinics really provide that entry point into our health care system and have consistently been shown to increase access to health care services, particularly for those who are geographically isolated,” McShane said in a September interview. “By reducing unnecessary emergency room visits and costs associated with hospitalizations… it has been estimated to save a total of $1.1 billion per year.”

More information about the LION Mobile Clinic is available on the College of Medicine’s website or the clinic’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Those with questions about the mobile clinic’s services should send an email to lionmobileclinic@pennstatehealth.psu.edu.