'I'm not immune': Nurse explains why she decided to get COVID-19 vaccine now as delta variant spreads
Grace Zieba, an emergency nurse at Integris-Grove in Oklahoma, has taken care of COVID-19 patients from the very beginning, but she didn't want to get vaccinated until now.
"When the vaccination came out initially, I was very skeptical," she said.
Zieba told sister station KOCO that, at first, she felt she was young and healthy and didn't need the shot that had only just been authorized for emergency use. It seemed her patients were often older or had serious risk factors that she didn't have.
"I'm not a big anti-vaxxer," Zieba said. "I am vaccinated in every other area, but this was something that I just wasn't really comfortable with."
But then came the delta variant, which has hit the hospital hard.
Zieba said she started seeing younger and healthier people getting severely sick, and she started talking to many colleagues who had gotten the shot.
"I've made the decision that it's time. It's time to be vaccinated," she said. "There are hundreds of people around me every day that have been vaccinated, and they're stronger because of it."
Zieba isn't the only one. With delta raging, vaccinations have surged in Oklahoma to levels not seen since April 바카라 게임 웹사이트 a similar trend in other hard-hit states as people who were hesitant at first have decided to roll up their sleeves.
"I'm not immune as a 40-year-old woman with no comorbidities," Zieba said. "I'm not immune to COVID, and I'm not ready for it to give me the fight of my life."
Even with the recent surge, more than 42% of eligible Oklahomans haven't gotten their first COVID-19 shot.