Last week, BuzzFeed News asked to hear their stories about how to get the COVID-19 vaccine. We received almost 400 responses in less than 24 hours. People from all over the country, aged between 19 and 85, wrote about their experiences.
When the FDA authorized Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for emergency use in December, a mass launch still seemed, after almost a year of the pandemic, a distant goal. After a slow start, the vaccination campaign across the country has crushed expectations, especially in recent weeks. More than 118 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered so far, and President Biden said that all adults in the United States will be eligible to be vaccinated by May 1.
It was clear from many responses that we received that the vaccination effort injected a bit of hope into the country. After witnessing more than half a million deaths from COVID-19 and struggling to survive with little help from the government, many people expressed joy and relief that they finally received the vaccine. Others remembered the nightmare of scheduling appointments. For most, receiving the vaccine meant being a step closer to normal.
Many people also detailed how their lives and families were affected by the pandemic. Some lost jobs or income. Readers’ loved ones died of the virus and some also fell ill with COVID.
Ali, 25, said she was diagnosed with the coronavirus on March 27, 2020 and hospitalized shortly thereafter. She spent three months in bed and still has severe lung damage from the virus.
“The stress was immense and traumatic as I watched friends lose parents, colleagues die and lose my grandmother in a year,” Ali wrote.
In rural Minnesota, where 31-year-old Ashley lives alone, the pandemic has been isolated and frightening.
“I haven’t been out with any friends in over six months. I haven’t seen my family’s faces without a mask since before Thanksgiving, ”said Ashley. “I haven’t been touched by anyone else in almost a year.”
Leala Pourier, 19, lives in Colorado with her immediate family. During the pandemic, Pourier said he fought the anxiety of trying to control his family members – his maternal grandparents, who live in Maine, and his paternal grandparents, who are Oglala Lakota, a band of the Lakota people who live in the wildlife reserve. Pine Ridge in South Dakota.
Then, in January, when his paternal grandparents, who are in their seventies, received the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, Pourier was overjoyed.
“It was definitely a big relief,” said Pourier, especially since his aunt had a serious case of COVID over the summer and had to be hospitalized.
When it came time to schedule vaccine appointments, readers’ responses suggested that the process has been a mixed bag. Some said scheduling was easy, while others described it as almost impossible, including Hillary from Seattle, Washington, who said “it was worse than trying to get tickets to BTS shows”.
Hillary said vacancies disappeared from the scheduling website as soon as they went live, and Hillary missed several appointments because she was unable to complete the online application form quickly enough – an experience that 69-year-old Kristine Hines also had when trying to sign up for a vaccine in Florida.
“I was unable to complete the form quickly enough and all the spaces were filled in,” said Hines, a 10-year-old grandmother. “It was an extremely frustrating experience and I must admit that I was crying at times.”
Nicole, a New Jersey resident who finally got an appointment for her and her grandmother thanks to a Twitter account managed by volunteers who informs people about the available slots, said it was “basically like playing Hunger Games”.
Some of you said that you could not be vaccinated if you had no help.
Trisha Miglani, a medical student at the University of Maryland, went out with her mother to schedule appointments for her grandparents. They managed to book a place in a hospital for Miglani’s grandfather, but when he read the confirmation email, he accidentally canceled the appointment.
They finally got another appointment for him at Walgreens and one for her grandmother at the Six Flags vaccination post.
Miglani’s grandmother, Veena Kohli, told BuzzFeed News that she and her husband do not understand technology, adding: “We both wouldn’t have been able to make an appointment if it weren’t for our granddaughter.”
Amy Biedermann, a 35-year-old from Texas with a chronic health condition, only got an appointment with the help of a friend and is now paying upfront.
“I have been in a mental fog because of all the stress and trying to figure out how to get the vaccine has been incredibly overwhelming,” said Biedermann. “But now I’m offering to help other people book their appointments because I know what to do.”
Rue Tierney was lucky. Tierney’s mother asked about the vaccine when they were at Walgreens one night, and the team said they could apply to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine that night. Tierney and his mother filled out some forms and waited in a room for about an hour before getting the vaccine.
“I live in Texas, so it was very frustrating to see people without masks walking around,” said Tierney. “All of this was incredibly lucky.”
For Alexa D., a teacher from Atlanta, Georgia, an area that has fluctuated between online and face-to-face teaching in recent months, it was an easy process. When she showed up at a local hospital for the vaccine, the team did not ask for her identity (she used the school’s email address to sign up) or insurance information and handed her a waiver to sign.
“Then they just medicated me and made me wait 15 minutes with a doctor to make sure I was fine,” said Alexa. “They were very meticulous in answering any and all questions that people had … I think they wanted to make everyone comfortable.”
Carrie Schmidt, 29, said that the staff at the clinic she attended in Tucson, Arizona, seemed eager to vaccinate as many people as possible.
“Getting the vaccine was one of the best medical experiences I’ve ever had,” said Schmidt.
Several health professionals told us how scared they were to care for patients with COVID day after day and to comfort bereaved family members.
Megan Sitlington, 40, said the peak of the surge in the hospital in Boulder, Colorado, where she worked, was stressful. The worst period was between November and January, she said, when “it looked like all patients were COVID positive”.
“I held a woman who knew that her father was dying. She was so scared, ”said Sitlington. “Those memories and those days will stay with me.”
Sitlington did not anticipate the relief she felt after receiving her second dose of the vaccine and she found comfort as more members of her family were vaccinated.
“I’m still trying to understand the reality that I can relax a little bit internally,” said Sitlington.
Some, like a 47-year-old man from Nampa, Idaho, who runs a cemetery with her boyfriend, talked about the feeling that the vaccine will protect them from others’ worst behavior.
“People here don’t take it seriously and their behavior reflects their disbelief. This makes the work with the audience VERY WEAK ”, they wrote. “We buried several victims of COVID and were always surprised by the mourners who don’t wear masks or seem to care about the disease that just opened a hole in their families.”
For Amanda, from Virginia, who has severe asthma, being vaccinated is a guarantee that people who do not respect safety guidelines will not make her super sick.
“I can’t control the people around me, but at least with a vaccine, I have a certain level of protection against their actions that I didn’t have before,” said Amanda.
Several people described having been knocked over by a wall of emotion after receiving their jabs.
Kate, 65, recalled that she and her daughter cried when she received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“I hadn’t realized until then how much isolation, fear and pressure I had been holding over these past 12 months,” she said.
In Corpus Christi, Texas, Luisa White said she felt a sense of relief and admiration, “as if I were part of the story. I sat in my car afterwards and just cried. “
Sandra Louise Stevenson, 72 years old from Memphis, Tennessee, simply wrote, “1st dose WOO HOO!”
Many described side effects such as pain and fatigue, but said the temporary discomfort was worth it.
Kristi, Oklahoma, had a rash and fever for a few days after her second injection. Still, Kristi wrote, “I would do this 100% again if it meant that my loved ones and I will be protected.”
Above all, people were relieved and optimistic about the future. Some said they would still be cautious in the coming months, and others described the safety that the vaccine offers.
In early March, the Center for Disease Control released its guidelines for fully vaccinated people, recommending that they be able to stay together indoors without masks or physical distance. The agency also said that fully vaccinated people can visit another family that has not been vaccinated without wearing masks, as long as unvaccinated people are at low risk of becoming seriously ill.
But being vaccinated with COVID-19 is not a ticket back to pre-pandemic life. More than 200 million people in the country have not yet been vaccinated, and public health experts have warned of the threat of new variants of the coronavirus – a factor that CDC director Rochelle Walensky cited when explaining why the agency has not yet recommended travel. for fully vaccinated people.
Still, the prospect of a future not entirely consumed by the pandemic has brought joy to many people.
“It’s the light at the end of the dark tunnel,” said Emily Houze in Louisville, Kentucky. “I can stay close to my parents and the newborn niece without worrying about whether I’m going to kill them. I can get married now. I can live my life without constant fear and anxiety. “
Many of you imagined embracing family members, having dinner at home, seeing friends, watching shows, going to the supermarket without fear and, above all, a sense of freedom.
As Sunny, 35, from St. Louis, Missouri, wrote, “Spring is finally here, we are getting rid of the winter sickness and the vaccine is rolling. I feel hopeful for the first time in a long time. “