As Grant County residents began to line up to get the COVID-19 vaccine, CASA and Community Counseling Solutions partnered up to talk to people about their reasons for getting the vaccine.

Lindsay Rausch, CASA’s wraparound services coordinator, said she and Elise Delgado, an outreach worker with CCS, found that people want to talk and connect. She said they had questions, opinions and experiences around COVID-19 they wanted to share.

“It was enlightening to get beyond the headlines and talking points and hear real people’s experiences firsthand,” she said.

Rausch said it was “uplifting” as people talked to her about their plans after getting immunized, which included bringing their lives back to a “sense of normalcy,” which included being able to travel and see family again.

With permission from those she spoke to, Rausch shared a few of these conversations without any other identifying information except for gender identification, age and initials.

The Eagle only made general references to age and gender for clarity and readability.

From the polio epidemic to the COVID-19 pandemic

A Grant County couple who both lived through the polio epidemic did not hesitate to roll up their sleeves when it was their turn to get the shot.

“I believe our medical professionals know what they’re doing,” the husband said. “I’m old enough — I went through the polio and smallpox thing. The numbers tell you, this is not a joke.”

According to the Mayo Clinic, the polio epidemic infected 60,000 children at its height, paralyzed thousands and killed 3,000 people. The U.S. began widespread vaccinations in 1955 and completely eradicated the the virus in the U.S. by 1979, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

“Kids died and nobody talked about it. Kids just never came home. If a household had measles, a quarantine notice was put on your door,” the wife told Rausch.

Vaccine hesitancy

Rausch said, when she and Delgado set out to talk to people, she wanted to hear from those who were hesitant at first but ultimately decided to get the shot.

A woman in her late 50s initially did not want to get the vaccine.

However, Rausch said she thought about her health issues, a delay in getting surgery, her job around kids and decided to “brave up.”

In another situation, a female in her 40s worried at first about severe food allergies, but after speaking with nurses, chose to get it.

‘Less likely to get seriously ill’

Rausch said, aside from getting immunized for their health, other reasons were to see friends and family again and to protect others.

“A close second was getting back a sense of freedom and normalcy,” she said.

A middle-aged resident said, “I believe that getting vaccinated will make it less likely that I will get seriously ill from COVID-19, so I will continue to be able to take care of my family.”

‘Maybe my mom needed me to have it’

Rausch said she talked to a woman in her late 50s who dropped by the clinic because of her elderly mother.

“She asked me to,” the woman said of her mother. “She told me I should do it. She’s very vulnerable, and I’m over a lot. I may not need it, but maybe my mom needed me to have it.”