WORTH THE WAIT
THE COMMUNITY SEES COVID-19 VACCINE AS A WAY BACK TO NORMAL LIFE
It was a late February afternoon and the parking lot at Fairview Baptist Church in Columbus looked a bit like rush-hour on an L.A. freeway. A line of cars serpentined though parking lot, wrapping around the large church complex in two lanes before filtering into a single land to a lower level parking lot to a pair of large open-air tents where a team of state health department workers, with the aid of Mississippi National Guardsmen, conducted COVID-19 vaccinations.
Upon receiving the vaccine, drivers pulled into a parking space for the mandatory 15-minute waiting period, a precaution put in place to address any allergic reaction that might accompany the vaccination.
On this particular day, getting the vaccine was about a two-hour process. Even so, the mood was more or less genial.
While public health officials have been concerned about the reticence of some Americans to be vaccinated, there was no evidence of reluctance on this afternoon,
“I didn’t mind the wait at all,” said Vicki Williams, who along with her parents, Harold Long, 91, and Billie Long, 87, had just received their second dose of the vaccine. “Right now, all I’m feeling is relief, especially for my mom and dad. I feel like we’re a lot safer now. Maybe things can be a little more like normal now. We’ll still wear our masks and be careful, but I think I won’t be so worried about them as I have been.”
Those waiting in line entertained themselves by reading magazines, listening to the car radio or playing games on the tablets as they inched along the procession.
Wade and Gail Ward made a bit more productive use of their wait time, using the two hours to supervise the home-schooling assignments of their grandchildren, Madison and Evan Dunnam, in the back seat of the couple’s SUV.
“We were told there would be a wait, so we put the time to good use,” Wade Ward said.
At the time, COVID-19 vaccinations were restricted to those over the age of 65 or people with underlying medical conditions that made them particularly vulnerable to the virus. At that point, according to the state health department about a quarter of the roughly 1.2 million Mississippians are eligible.
The wait in the parking lot was nothing compared to the wait for most of the people who arrived for their vaccine appointment.
“I was on the website trying to get an appointment for me and my parents as soon as they were offered,” Williams said. “There was never any hesitation. It took about two weeks. Really, getting the appointment was the hard part. The vaccination part was pretty easy.”
Williams said getting the second dose of vaccination means she can start doing things she had to put off.
“I was in my first year of retirement when the virus hit,” she said. “I was ready to do all the things you do when you retire - travel, visit friends. All that had to be put on hold. Now, I can start doing some of those things. So I’m very excited to have both doses. I feel like I can enjoy my retirement now.”
The Wards had a similar motivation to get the vaccine.
“Last fall we had a trip to Spain that was canceled because of COVID,” Wade said. “We rescheduled the trip for this fall. I don’t know what the situation will be like then, if that kind of travel will be allowed. But what we do know is that getting vaccination means we’ll have done our part. So we feel good about that. We'll be ready to go.”
Gail Ward had another reason to be encouraged,“It means we’ll be able to go back to church again,” she said. “We’ve missed that so much. I think getting the vaccine is really going to do so many of the things we did before that we didn’t even think about. The past year, it makes you realize how blessed you’ve been. ”
STORY BY SLIM SMITH
PHOTOS BY DEANNA ROBINSON
