With the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines becoming available to a larger crowd, students have been reluctant to trust the vaccine. However, there have been students that are looking to change the narrative on getting vaccinated.
“I can’t wait to get the vaccine. It’ll probably take a while, but it will happen,” said Joana Jackson, a business administration student at Florida A&M University. “I want to get vaccinated because I feel like getting vaccinated is the only way to get back to normal.”
On Saturday, the West Tennessee Wal-Mart was distributing Moderna vaccines in a drive-thru format, and students jumped at the chance to get it due to the fact that many students were worried about how long it would take for the vaccines to become available to them.
“I was worried when the rollout first started because I’m not an elder nor do I have underlying health conditions so the timetable was uncertain,” Florida State University senior, Rebecca Johnson said. “I was scrolling on Instagram and I saw a video on the WuzHadninTally page about them giving out vaccines at Wal-Mart on West Tennessee, and I just had to go. I even told some of my friends about it so they could go get vaccinated.”
Upon receiving her first shot, Johnson experienced one side effect.
“The shot wasn’t painful, but my arm was sore a few hours after the shot. Besides the soreness, I didn’t experience any other side effects from the vaccine,” said Johnson.
Tykeem McCray, a Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare tray liner and senior at Florida A&M University, was able to receive both vaccinations, and he also experienced similar side effects. However, he said that his side effects only came with the first dose of the vaccine.
“When I got my first dose of the vaccine, I experienced a little light fatigue, I was dehydrated, and my arm was really sore for about three days, but with the second shot, oddly enough, there were no side effects,” said McCray.
Even with manageable side effects, there is still a lot of doubt surrounding the vaccines. Nevertheless, there are some students who would love to be vaccinated due to the yearning for post-pandemic life.
The possibility of going back to normal is exactly what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the COVID-19 vaccinations can provide.
According to the CDC, “COVID-19 vaccination works by teaching your immune system how to recognize and fight the virus that causes COVID-19, and this protects you from getting sick with COVID-19.”
The CDC also says, “None of the authorized and recommended COVID-19 vaccines or COVID-19 vaccines currently in development in the United States contain the live virus that causes COVID-19. This means that a COVID-19 vaccine cannot make you sick with COVID-19.”
This type of protection from the virus is sure to lead to full immunization nationwide so that the world can be virus-free.