[ad_1]
-
Alyssa Hicks, 28, a teacher who has been a stay-at-home mom, has changed her mind about coronavirus vaccines.
-
She decided to get the vaccine after recovering from COVID-19.
-
Here is her story, told to Heather Marcoux.
-
Visit the Insider homepage for more stories.
As a stay-at-home military mom, I was in no rush to get the COVID-19 vaccine initially. With 16 month old twins and a 3 year old at home, it’s not like I go out to a lot of places where I will be exposed.
My husband, an active duty member, was offered the vaccine early, but turned it down while we waited for more information on side effects. He felt that it was still too early and that he didn’t have a full picture of who they were.
I trust science and I believe in it, but I also don’t get the flu shot every year. Now that I have young children, I think about vaccines a lot. I feel like I never have all the information, as a civilian outside of the scientific world.
But despite being careful and keeping my kids home with me most of the time, I contracted COVID-19 in March. I don’t know how my husband managed to avoid catching it from me, but he took care of parenting while I was upstairs in my bedroom, absolutely miserable.
I treated my twins through the ordeal to give them antibodies. I was sicker than I had been for a long, long time.
When I finally recovered, my doctor told me not to get the vaccine for three months. My husband still hasn’t been vaccinated and still hasn’t contracted the virus, but when the Delta virus variant kicked in, we reconsidered.
Finally, we decided to look for the vaccine. It was difficult for me, although I trust my doctors, because there have been so many unknowns in the last year and a half. But having had COVID-19 once, I know I don’t want to have it anymore, and I certainly don’t want my kids to catch it.
I got vaccinated to protect children from the virus
My children and other children are the reason I decided to get the vaccine in July. I am going back to work as a teacher soon, and for the safety of my students, I knew I had to. My own children are vulnerable because they cannot get vaccinated yet.
Even though I don’t have much insight into the inner workings of the scientific world, I feel like brains bigger than mine have worked hard, and I have to trust them.
Maybe we don’t know everything about the vaccine, but at this point we know enough to know it’s worth it.
When I decided to get the vaccine, my husband also agreed to do it; he would end up doing it anyway, as a government employee. I am getting my second dose next week.
I think I am a good person. I thought I was protecting my family as much as possible. I stayed at home and washed my hands. But I still managed to get COVID-19.
When I was on the fence I kept seeing social media posts about how normal it was to have chickenpox or even childhood polio, but I’m only 28, my parents are only 52 years old – that time seems so long ago. Vaccines for these things have been around for so long that they feel proven and trusted.
Trusting established vaccines was different from deciding to trust a new one in real time.
But maybe what happened this year will also protect my grandchildren. Maybe one day, when my kids are between 30 and 40, they’ll get their kids vaccinated against COVID-19. And the danger will be felt as far as polio seems to me now.
Read the original article on Insider
[ad_2]
Source link