SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered on Tuesday, and doctors and nurses will be the first in line to receive it.
“I’ll choose to get it, yes,” said Jaime Woolstenhulme. “Not just to protect me, but to protect everyone I come into contact with.”
Woolstenhulme is a nurse who has seen many very sick patients. She hovers between six hospitals in Utah where there are shortages.
She’s one of the first to get the COVID-19 vaccine, hopefully this week or next.
“I’m a little nervous like everyone else, but I’ve done my research,” she said. “I know this is not a new vaccine, that it is a vaccine that they have been studying for a long time and I feel like it is very safe.”
Heidi Belnap Nish is also a nurse. She works in childbirth.
“I’ve seen firsthand how difficult it is for people,” said Nish. “There has been a lot of loss, many long-term effects.”
But Heidi has a different take on the vaccine.
“As someone who’s had COVID twice, I couldn’t be more excited about this vaccine because COVID is worthless. I’m just going to be honest, COVID is awful,” she said.
Nish first got COVID in May and then tested positive a second time in November.
As someone who has had COVID twice, I couldn’t be more excited about this vaccine.
–Heidi Belnap Nish
Although considered recovered, it still has side effects.
‘I’m still tired. I have brain fog from COVID, ”she said. “I get out of breath very easily and yet the unknown of what could happen is frightening to me.”
The maternity nurse said she’s seen how scared people are when they get the virus, and for those who haven’t had COVID, she hopes they never have to experience it.
“I feel suffocated by it because, as I said, I have a lot of relatives. The majority of my family hasn’t had it yet,” said Nish. “And I hope they don’t have to.”
Nish and Woolstenhulme are not sure when they can get the first dose of the vaccine, but they said it will hopefully be in the next two weeks.
The nurses have been informed that clinics will be set up in the hospital where health workers can get the vaccine quickly and easily.
photos
Related Links
related stories
Tania Dean