Q/A with vaccinated Raiders

As the vaccines continue to roll out, several faculty members and students within the school have received at least one dose. As of April 23, over 20 percent of Wichita County residents have been fully-vaccinated.  The Rider Chronicle sat down with junior Londi Reid and AP US History teacher Christopher Hartman regarding their vaccination experience.  

Q: Which vaccine did you get? Have you gotten both shots?

Reid: I got the Pfizer, and I get my second shot May 7. 

Hartman: I got the Moderna vaccine. I got the first shot the Friday going into Spring Break and the last one April 9. 

Q: What research, if any, did you do on the vaccine before getting it?

R: I didn’t do that much research, but I had a lot of friends who got the Pfizer vaccine, and they said they were fine after they got it. The only one I really didn’t trust was the Johnson and Johnson, but the only one I could get was the Pfizer.

H: I did enough research to find out that the vaccines are not going to prevent you from getting COVID, but should keep you from getting a severe case of COVID like getting you hospitalized or possibly dying from it. That was kind of taken off the table by any of the three vaccines. I called my doctor to get his recommendation, and he said any of them would be fine, so I trusted my personal doctor to lead me in the right direction. 

Q: Do you feel less worried about COVID-19 now that you’ve gotten the vaccine? 

R: A little bit. I’m not susceptible to getting it, obviously, but it makes me feel better that all of us are a step away from not wearing masks anymore, going out in public and returning to our “normal”.

H: From a personal standpoint, yes. Globally, I think it’s still a huge issue, and we still have to be vigilant going forward. 

Q: Did you experience any side effects to the vaccine? 

R: My arm was sore the day after and I had a headache for a few days, but after that I was totally fine.

H: In both cases, I got it on a Friday and I was fine on that day, but all day Saturday I felt miserable. I had a fever, headaches and chills the first and the second time, fever and headaches. It wasn’t particularly pleasant either day. By Sunday I felt significantly better, and by Monday I pretty much felt back to normal. I do think on the second vaccine, I had a lingering tiredness that kind of extended for about a week. Supposedly that’s also a symptom of getting your second dose. 

Q: Has being vaccinated changed how you’ve lived? 

R: It’s made me feel a bit more confident, I’d say. Not invincible, but one step closer to being back to normal. 

H: Not particularly, I still wear a mask when I go out and still try to socially distance. I just think being vaccinated helps me, but I could still conceivably give the virus to somebody else. If I were to contract it, just because I might be safe from hospitalization, I could put someone else at risk. I’m just trying to do my part in wearing my mask and socially distancing. 

Q: How comfortable do you feel being around others now? 

R: I feel a little bit more comfortable. I still try to wear a mask if possible, but if I’m around someone who is also vaccinated with one or both shots, then I feel a little bit better about that. 

H: More comfortable. I wasn’t particularly comfortable through much of the first semester because I thought we could’ve done more to protect teachers and students than what we did as a district. One thing on a personal level, the district did not choose to extend COVID sick leave for the second semester. It expired on a federal level in December, but many districts around here extended it to the spring semester, but WFISD didn’t. I thought that was a poor decision, considering that we were at the height of the pandemic in January.