Deidre Greene of Albany shares her vaccine story:

I want to be a testimony to the safety of the vaccine to the BIPOC community. I am an African American nurse practitioner, retired for one year, and chair of the Health and Wellness Committee for NAACP Corvallis/Albany. I would not take a vaccine so early in ordinary times, but these are not ordinary times. I wanted to be part of the solution of getting children back to school and for older adults to live the remainder of their lives in a more normal way. I had confidence in the high rates of vaccine effectiveness and low side effects in at least the short-term data. Also, the U.K. was vaccinating its citizens. I saw confidence from nurses, doctors and public officials taking vaccine. I also had sympathy with ICU nurses being on the front line; I know that world, stress and risk. Research about new messenger RNA vaccine technology, how it worked and that the basic principles behind it were 30 years in the making helped me come to my decision.

This article first appeared in the March 23, 2021 issue of Oregon Coronavirus Update.