Editor’s Note: This is part three of a three-part series brought to you by Richland Public Health/Count on Me Richland County and its efforts to encourage all community members to consider vaccination through CountonmeRC.org.
You can read part 1 here and part 2 here.
By Tierra Thomas, Content Specialist
In 2020, Elizabeth Flaugher, 24, was on the cusp of finishing her senior year at Kent State University on a strong note, excited to see what the future had in store for her. She was part of the planning committee for the American Institute of Architecture students and they were selling tickets for an event. Unfortunately, COVID-19 changed plans.
“I was selling tickets and somebody from the committee came down and said, ‘Hey guys, we’re about to get an email saying that we’re all going home, so stop selling (tickets), and I’m like, ‘crap,’” Flaugher said.
Flaugher had to complete her last semester of college from home. Her graduation was virtual and she had to watch her name get called out on the television.
“I was dressed up in my cap and gown in my kitchen during a pre-recorded video and my dad was out in the garage washing the car. It was really anticlimactic for four years of work,” Flaugher said.
“It was definitely very lonely because I wanted to be with my friends my senior year and I kind of got upset a couple of times because I missed my friends and I wanted to be with them,” Flaugher said.
With her mother working at a hospital, having several friends with autoimmune diseases and also working in food service, Flaugher wanted to do her part in making sure her loved ones were safe, as well as herself. She received the first dose of the COVID vaccine in March 2020.
“I have a personal responsibility to the people around me, loved ones and even strangers that I don’t know that are vulnerable and I need to be healthy for,” Flaugher said. “I can’t go around and work in food service with COVID or show any symptoms or anything like that.”
Unfortunately, Flaugher ended up catching COVID in January of this year. She experienced fatigue and body aches that left her immobile on the couch for a week.
“It was just God-awful,” Flaugher said.
But the worst part about it for Flaugher was the loneliness she experienced. She could not cuddle up with her mother on the couch and watch television. She could not see anyone for 14 days. And even after that, she was still fatigued for the rest of the month.
The pandemic continues to take the world by storm. In the past two years, two variants have spread across the globe: Delta and Omicron. Omicron, however, is recent. And it will be even more spreadable than the delta variant according to Richland Public Health Educator Reed Richmond.
“We’re probably still a couple of weeks away from where we can make some predictions about what Omicron is going to do,” Richmond said. “We do know that it’s more rapidly expanding than we had hoped that it would. And we were hoping that it would take a little bit longer to start developing in the states.”
There are active cases of the Omicron variant in Ohio now, and Richmond says it’s multiplying at a rapid speed.
In Richland County, there are 1500 total active cases currently. After the third surge in the summer, Richmond said it’s set the county back from how well they were containing the virus before the mask mandate was lifted. Richmond urges the Richland County community to only have Christmas events with immediate family members only to help prevent the spread.
“We were really hoping the Omicron variant wouldn’t break out until about January, and everybody could relatively safely do the Christmas holiday,” Richmond said. “It’s unfortunate that, once again, people are in the same position as last Christmas, but we’ve got to do the same things to keep this from spreading.”
Over a period of months after getting the vaccine, the efficiency of the vaccine declines just a little bit, according to Richmond. It’s important to take that extra step of protecting yourself by getting the third dose.
“Think of it like a flu shot,” Richmond said. “You get a flu shot every year. And the reason that you do that is because you want to boost your immunity against the flu vaccine and the flu viruses that are out there. So the same thing applies to the COVID vaccine.”
Despite already getting COVID, Flaugher’s doubling down on her efforts to protect her family, her friends and herself. She plans on getting her booster shot to help prevent the spread of the virus and its variants.
“If we’re reaching the stage in our society where we can’t trust scientists, that’s concerning,” Flaugher said. “You can say it’s political. You can say it’s this, that or the other. But at the end of the day, all of the science is pointing to one answer, and it’s that vaccines are helping. Vaccines have helped in the past. It’s just the way it works.”
