With unfamiliar terminology and mixed messages coming from every direction, it becomes clear why so many Americans are currently undecided about whether to take a Covid-19 vaccine.
It’s shouldn’t be any surprise to you that the Illinois Science Council is pro-vaccine. We’ve held our Shots 4 Shots events, where we’ve brought a nurse, a pharmacist, and a scientist to a bar to administer the flu shot and answer people’s questions. (We wanted to make it an annual thing, but then COVID-19 happened). In Science Unsealed, we’ve published several blogs about how vaccines work and how we know they’re safe, written by experts in the field.
But what we’ve been missing all this time is the perspective of the average person. Recently, we sent out a survey and learned that everyone has their own reasons for getting vaccinated. We decided to share those personal stories with you below.
When you’re ready, go to vaccinefinder.org to find a vaccine appointment in your area.
Here are the stories (Some have been edited slightly for clarity):
My family is full of autoimmune issues and, while very few have shown up in me so far, I am personally nervous about anything that will exacerbate them. I have never gotten a flu shot (I’m 36), and I will absolutely be doing that in the future, too — I realize now that I have been incredibly selfish by still allowing myself to potentially spread the flu to others who could get far worse symptoms than me. What changed my mind? I am much more worried about the long-term effects of COVID-19 than seasonal flu, personally, since it obviously affects the body in very different ways.
-Kaylee
I am getting vaccinated out of my feeling of responsibility to myself, my family and friends, and the world at large. Without vaccination, the pandemic will continue for longer–and more people will die. I want to do all I can to ensure all Chicagoans get vaccinated. I have volunteered once already at a vaccine site and I plan to do so again, hopefully as a vaccinator.
When I’m vaccinated and I come in contact with an infected person, that will stop viral transmission right there; the vaccine will protect me from picking up the virus and getting sick.
-Matthew Krecic
As a public school substitute teacher-turned public health worker due to the pandemic, I’ve been helping COVID-19 patients by providing them education and resources as a case investigator/ contact tracer since September 2020. When offered an extra thawed vaccine dose from our local health department in December, I bravely jumped in my car and got my first jab. Every single person vaccinated saves countless others from contracting the virus, suffering from the symptoms, living with the long-term effects, and possibly dying. I’m glad to be on the front lines helping slow the spread of COVID-19 every day and grateful to have been one of the first protected by the vaccine. I hope everyone will do their part by getting vaccinated. Each vaccine in an arm helps students and teachers, friends & families, businesses & communities and all of us get closer to being safely close to one another again.
-Dee Dauber
The SARS-CoV-2 virus and resulting pandemic have wreaked havoc on world trade and business, on educational systems, and on families’ and individual’s emotional, physical, economic, and psychological health. While it may take quite a while for us to return to “normal,” the COVID-19 vaccine is our best hope. I was very happy to qualify for the Pfizer vaccine a month ago and I had no doubts about taking it. I had no side effects, nor did anyone I know.
The trials of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were double-blind studies, the gold standard in medical research, and the sample sizes were very large, about 42,000 and 30,000 participants respectively, half on the vaccine and half on the placebo. The FDA, the Department of Health and Human Services, the CDC, the World Health Organization, and Dr. Fauci, the Chief Medical Advisor to the President, all agree that the vaccines are safe. Certainly, they are safer than contracting COVID, and this protection slows the spread and development of new strains. The rapid development of these vaccines is a miracle that we should not pass up when the opportunity arises.
-Bill Carroll
I am getting the vaccine to protect my parents, myself, and those I love.
-Liz Lux
My brother died last summer after months in the ICU. We weren’t able to visit him for most of it, then towards the end, only when they realized he was dying, were we able to visit, two people at a time. Before he was in the hospital, we all stayed isolated, because my brother was a transplant recipient and immunosuppressed, and even something as simple as a cold could kill him. But because of the rise in COVID cases around us, we couldn’t stay with him in the hospital and we were forced to bear with the reality that we wouldn’t be able to do everything we could for him as his life hung in the balance.
The impacts of COVID-19 on our society are not always obvious. Mine is just one example of how this terrible pandemic affected a family where no one actually caught the virus. For everyone with family in the hospital, for every transplant recipient, for every person on chemotherapy or who is otherwise immunosuppressed, for every hospital employee, for every grandparent who can’t visit their grandchildren, for every worker who cannot do their job from home, for every person that is working in a crowded factory to produce the food, drugs, and supplies we need to stay safe, for the teachers who are struggling to teach their students over Zoom, for all of those who have lost their jobs due to the shutdown, I’m getting my vaccine as soon as I am eligible.
-Ben Marcus
I am 80 and have asthma and COPD even though I never smoked, and I try to be careful with my health. As a group, we have an obligation to ourselves and others to stop the spread of this virus. To me, it’s a matter of probability and weighing risks: would I rather risk catching COVID-19, or would I rather risk a few minor side effects from the vaccine?
-Howard Rutiezer
I’m getting the vaccine because I believe in science, research, and I trust the people in charge.
-Megan Lennon
I got vaccinated because I am a teacher returning to in-person teaching, where I will be in close contact with up to about 120 students per week. However, even if I wasn’t in contact with hardly anyone, I would still have gotten the vaccine whenever I was eligible for it. I believe it is important to reach herd immunity so that our society can return to what we used to think of as “normal,” but hopefully even better.
-Kristen Maier
I’m a senior with several risk factors and I love to travel. I also love to be social with family and friends. My daughter, a scientist, tells me the vaccines are safe and effective and I’m old enough to remember when polio was beaten with a vaccine. My wife and I both have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and have had few side effects. This is the way to begin living fully again.
-David Lux
Do you have a story to tell about why you’re getting vaccinated? Fill out our vaccine survey and we’ll publish your story in a future blog post!
