To Vax or Not
Matt Seinberg

My entire family contracted Covid-19 in March of 2020. My daughter Melissa got it first and was sick for almost two weeks. My wife Marcy was sick for almost three weeks. I was only sick for two days, with very mild symptoms.

There was no doubt we would be vaccinated.

When the Covid-19 vaccinations came out, there was no doubt in our household that we would get it. It was just a matter of where, when and which one we would get. Since Marcy and I were furloughed from our jobs, there was no time missed, only wondering when we would have to go back.

It took us about three weeks of non-stop trying on various websites to finally get appointments for all three of us. We ended up at CVS with the Moderna version. We went for our vaccinations.

Melissa and Marcy had sore arms at the injection site; I was quite sick. After the first shot, I had arm pain, but was also quite fatigued with mild body soreness and I missed two days of work.

The second shot of vaccine put me on my back. Instead of soreness at the injection site, my left shoulder hurt, I was severely fatigued; my entire body hurt. I felt like a truck had rolled right over me, multiple times. Again, I missed two days of work.

With that said, I do not regret at all taking the shots. I have no religious or medical reasons for not taking it. When I go out shopping, I still wear a mask and just shake my head inwardly at those who don’t.

It saddens me that, here in New York State, there are very strict mandates in place for healthcare workers to get the vaccine or face losing their jobs. When the pandemic started, these same people were held up as heroes. They worked long and tedious hours in the hospitals to tend to the patients that had serious bouts of Covid-19 and desperately needed their care.

They saw the misery, why chance it for themselves?

Today, hospitals are firing or furloughing these same people for refusing to take the vaccine. These workers saw the misery that was result from not taking the vaccine. I can’t believe that they wouldn’t want to keep themselves and their families safe, today, and into the future.

I would really think these self-less healthcare workers would have been among the first to voluntarily line up to get the vaccine. What are they afraid of? The vaccine hasn’t had anyone die from it and probably saved more lives than we can count.

My reasoning is based on taking the flu shot. I get mine every year in October. I have never had any sort of reaction to it, other than maybe some soreness at the injection site.

Because of my history with upper respiratory infections and bronchitis, I must get it. The last time I had the flu was around 2001 and I was out of work for over three weeks. Why would I want to take the chance with Covid-19 and possibly be that sick or even die?

Healthcare workers saw firsthand the misery and death, so why would they want to jeopardize their lives and those of their patients, not to mention their family and friends, by not getting vaccinated? It’s a strange stance they take.

Instead of the hospitals and local governments firing these people, they need to sit down and have a meaningful dialog on getting the vaccine and explaining how they don’t want to fire them. Working shorthanded puts patient lives at risk and where are they going to get the replacements to take over for the fired workers? There is already a shortage of nurses in the New York City metropolitan area.

A heavy-handed approach is not the one to take right now. Some sort of compromise must be reached. First, they said that unvaccinated workers would be tested weekly and now it seems they blew past that part.

Fall from grace.

Once called heroes, now they are outcasts for their non-belief in the vaccine. How times have changed. The question is this, will the unvaccinated frontline workers take the vaccine or lose their job.