Alyssa Hicks
- Alyssa Hicks, 28, a teacher who's been a stay-at-home mom, changed her mind on coronavirus vaccines.
- She decided to get vaccinated after recovering from COVID-19.
- Here's her story, as told to Heather Marcoux.
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As a stay-at-home military mom, I wasn't initially in a rush to get a COVID-19 vaccine. With 16-month-old twins and a 3-year-old at home, it's not as if I'm going out to many places where I would be exposed.
My husband, an active-duty member, was offered the vaccine early but turned it down as we waited for more information on side effects. He felt that it was still too early and that he didn't have the full picture in terms of what they were.
I trust science and believe in it, but I also don't get my flu shot every year. Now that I have young kids, I'm thinking about vaccines a lot. I feel as if I never have all the information, as a civilian outside the scientific world.
But despite being careful and keeping my children at home with me most of the time, I contracted COVID-19 in March. I'm not sure how my husband managed to avoid catching it from me, but he did the parenting while I was upstairs in my room, absolutely miserable.
I nursed my twins through the ordeal to give them antibodies. I was sicker than I had been in a very, very long time.
When I finally recovered, my doctor told me not to get vaccinated for three months. My husband remained unvaccinated and still didn't get the virus, but when the Delta virus variant came into the picture we reconsidered.
Eventually, we decided to seek the vaccine. It was hard for me, even though I do trust my doctors, because there have been so many unknowns over the past year and a half. But having had COVID-19 once, I know I don't want to have it again, and I certainly don't want my children to get it.
I got vaccinated to protect children from the virus
My kids, and other children, are the reason I decided to get vaccinated in July. I'm going back to work soon as a teacher, and for the safety of my students I knew I had to do it. My own kids are vulnerable because they can't get vaccinated yet.
Even though I don't have much insight into the inner workings of the scientific world, I feel as if bigger brains than mine have been hard at work, and I have to put some trust in that.
Maybe we don't know everything about the vaccine, but at this point we know enough to know that it's worth it.
When I decided to get vaccinated my husband also agreed to do it; eventually he'd have to anyway, as a government employee. I'm getting my second dose next week.
I think I'm a good person. I thought I was protecting my family as much as possible. I stayed home and washed my hands. But I still managed to get COVID-19.
When I was on the fence, I kept seeing social-media posts about how it used to be normal to get childhood chickenpox or even polio, but I'm only 28, my parents are only 52 - that time feels so far away. The vaccines for those things have been around for so long that they feel tried and trusted.
Trusting established vaccines felt different from deciding to trust a new one in real time.
But maybe what happened this year will protect my grandchildren, too. Maybe someday, when my children are in their 30s and 40s, they'll get their kids vaccinated against COVID-19. And the danger will feel as far away as polio feels to me now.