Evansville Nurse Shares Why it’s Important to Get COVID Vaccine

It's been a historical week, when it comes to medical advances in America. Last Friday, the FDA approved the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine. In a trial, the Pfizer vaccine was 95% effective in preventing COVID-19, so hopefully this is the next step in ending this terrible pandemic. Health care workers have had the option to get the first of two doses of the vaccine. An email was sent to those that are eligible at this time. Tri-State healthcare workers began getting vaccinated this week.

My friend, Krystal Swanson, is a Registered Nurse, and she chose to be one of the first people to receive the vaccination. She works with COVID-19 patients everyday, and has a husband and little kids at home. Plus, she has asthma, so she felt like this was something she needed to do for her family. And as a frontline worker, Krystal wants to set a good example for the community.

I had the chance to catch up with Krystal the day after she received the vaccine. Here's what she had to say about why she chose to be one of the first, and how much her job means to her.

"Today I was a part of history.
I woke up this morning feeling so excited that I was going to be one of the few first people to get this vaccine. It’s such an amazing opportunity that we were given to have this vaccine provided to us. Over the last several weeks I have watched patients die, I have watched patients stuffer, and I have held their hands as they begged to just go home. I have also watched as others have made a full recovery. Today I made a choice, today I decided that I wanted to play a part in ending this virus. While I know that this vaccine is not an end all be all, I do know that we will never know if we don’t try." - Krystal Swanson