A breastfeeding mom who was unsure how or if it would affect her baby. A woman who prides herself on never taking painkillers. A college athlete who says she very much believes in individual freedom.
TV writer Kate Purdy had a baby just a few weeks before her home state of California issued stay-at-home orders. As the vaccines were approved and distributed in Los Angeles, she was breastfeeding and felt unsure about how a vaccination could affect her baby.
On Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updated its guidance recommending that pregnant women be vaccinated against the coronavirus, after finding no increased risk of miscarriage among those who have been immunized. The CDC also recommended vaccinations for breastfeeding women, citing reports that the mRNA vaccines have shown to produce antibodies in breastmilk that could pass along protection to babies.
“Ultimately, I decided to get vaccinated because no reports surfaced about babies being seriously harmed by the vaccine, and also because of the rise of the delta variant,” she said. “Even though I’m mostly staying home and wearing a mask when I occasionally go out, I didn’t want to contribute to more variants. I also figured a more protected me is better for my baby than a sick me.”
Just over half — or 50.4 percent of Americans — are fully vaccinated, and 59.2 percent have gotten one dose. With vaccination rates slowing and thousands of doses expiring in some states, officials are doubling down on efforts to reach the vaccine hesitant amid the alarming surge in cases from the more contagious delta variant.
“People are underestimating the benefits of the vaccines for babies,” said Jackie Parchem, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at McGovern Medical School at the University of Texas at Houston. “Vaccinated moms pass antibodies to their babies in utero if vaccinated during pregnancy and through breast milk. … The best way to protect your baby — and yourself, your family, and community — is to get vaccinated.”
Houston-based accountant Patricia Garcia said she doesn’t like to take any unnecessary medicines. She said she delivered her two sons forgoing an epidural or medications. She doesn’t get a flu shot, and doesn’t plan on getting one this year. She never gets the flu, she said, except for the one year she got the flu vaccine. But she takes her two teenage sons to get flu shots every year.
“I’m very good about washing my hands and sanitizing. In general, I try to be cautious, even before covid. But I know the boys aren’t. … The flu would totally get them,” the 41-year old said.
She said she isn’t an anti-vaccine: Both of her sons have the coronavirus vaccine, and her husband was eager to get one as soon as it became available.
But for Garcia, it was, and still is, a matter of individual choice.
“I don’t think it’s something you need to be forced into, or be told, ‘Oh, you’re not vaccinated. So you can’t come to my party or you can’t travel with me or whatever.' I don’t think that’s right. Because there is a lot of that,” she said.
She sees health-care professionals in her family constantly urging others to get vaccinated. She gets how that can only be more off-putting.
Garcia’s gynecologist, who she said practices holistic medicine and is not quick to recommend drugs, urged her to get vaccinated and explained the science behind the mRNA vaccines. The doctor also mentioned that some colleagues in the medical center had serious side effects from their bouts with the coronavirus including deep depressions and foggy brain — symptoms of long-haul covid — that kept them from going back to work. That caused Garcia to take the vaccination seriously.
But even before that, she had been reconsidering the vaccine.
“My uncle passed away in April, unfortunately, after battling it for three weeks. He just passed,” Garcia said.
Another relative — a 38-year old cousin — got the coronavirus, too.
“She told me her lungs were not the same after; she has trouble breathing when she exercises even a year after,” she said.
In the end, it was the possibility of these kinds of long-term symptoms that convinced her to get the vaccine.
“If a vaccine would help my odds, then I would take a chance,” she said. Aside from a sore arm, she said she had no side effects. “I would tell people not to be afraid of getting vaccinated.”
For Autumn Wilson, personal freedom means a lot. The rising junior at Blackburn College in Carlinville, Ill., originally chafed at the stay-at-home orders first implemented when the pandemic began. Her disagreements with her family over coronavirus protocols and prevention led her to move out.
“It’s not that I wasn’t afraid. I just think that I wasn’t as concerned because I didn’t know enough about it. … What I heard was how it was similar to the flu, but it was definitely difficult to understand,” she said. “I was trying to figure out if it was something that I really wanted to go out and protect myself from or if I needed to still experience my life as a teenager.”
Wilson plays volleyball at Blackburn and said that some teammates are only getting vaccinated so they can practice without a mask. She thinks that people should get vaccinated on their own terms. Now that she’s decided to get vaccinated, she said, it’s gone a long way in repairing her relationship with her family.
“Doing it offered a lot of ease and took weight off the shoulders of people that I love and care about, as well as makes me safe — or safer — in this environment.”
