Mariela Salgado
I have been reinfected with COVID for the second time, the first time in May, and the second time in December. I have missed several personally important family and friend events. I enjoy physical hobbies such as lifting weights and doing cardio to distress, which I cannot do since I do not want to infect anyone. Much worse, writing final papers and participating in a final group project when you have short breath, a fever, and body aches is not ideal for a college student. Due to COVID, my family has had no physical contact with my brother when he joined the Air Force and had to watch a Facebook Live graduation. As a graduate student at the University of Houston-Clear Lake, I watched how several of my fellow students missed the opportunity to walk, make an important memory, and enjoy the fruits of their hard work.
The virus will be out of my system at the beginning of the week of Christmas, which will allow me to spend time with my brother and family. I do not want to go through this again; I want to keep my brother, parents, and coworkers safe. I want to be active, get out of my apartment, and not feel isolated and out of shape.
Since this opportunity is presented to me, I will be one of the first in Community Health Network to take the vaccine. I will gladly do so. How can I work in the healthcare system if I have no faith or willingness to help frontline healthcare workers? How can I be a graduate student in a healthcare administration program if I don’t believe this will help our healthcare system? This feels like a moment in history, it is, but we are not the first humans in history to receive the first vaccine of anything. As a society, we know more now than when Dr. Michiaki Takahashi developed the varicella (chickenpox) vaccine or when Dr. Jonas Salk created the polio vaccine. Those were once life-ending diseases, but due to the vaccines, they now are easily preventable diseases. So, if a vaccine will end this, I advise all my fellow healthcare workers and classmates to take it.
