Item
Lindsey Jo Boehm Oral History, 2021/12/02
Media
Title (Dublin Core)
Lindsey Jo Boehm Oral History, 2021/12/02
Description (Dublin Core)
Lindsey Jo Boehm is a former UWEC student and graduate in Nursing, now a full-time nurse in a local hospital. This is Lindsey’s second interview a year since her first interview. In this interview, she discusses how things have changed from the last interview including moving, a new job, family changes, and how she takes care of herself and stays positive (or tries to). She discusses how the attitude in the medical field and doctors and nurses has changed in the last year; they were seen as heroes and now there is very little community support. She also discusses vaccines and variants and how they impact the community and her frustration and empathy for people during this pandemic.
Recording Date (Dublin Core)
Creator (Dublin Core)
Contributor (Dublin Core)
Partner (Dublin Core)
Type (Dublin Core)
oral history
video
Controlled Vocabulary (Dublin Core)
English
Healthcare
English
Public Health & Hospitals
English
Health & Wellness
English
Recreation & Leisure
English
Social Distance
Curator's Tags (Omeka Classic)
Collection (Dublin Core)
Curatorial Notes (Dublin Core)
Date Submitted (Dublin Core)
05/01/2023
Date Modified (Dublin Core)
06/29/2023
Date Created (Dublin Core)
12/02/2023
Interviewer (Bibliographic Ontology)
Tiffany Goetz
Interviewee (Bibliographic Ontology)
Lindsey Jo Boehm
Location (Omeka Classic)
Eau Claire
Wisconsin
United States of America
Format (Dublin Core)
video
Language (Dublin Core)
English
Duration (Omeka Classic)
00:41:28
abstract (Bibliographic Ontology)
Lindsey Jo Boehm is a former UWEC student and graduate in Nursing, now a full-time nurse in a local hospital. This is Lindsey’s second interview a year since her first interview. In this interview, she discusses how things have changed from the last interview including moving, a new job, family changes, and how she takes care of herself and stays positive (or tries to). She discusses how the attitude in the medical field and doctors and nurses has changed in the last year; they were seen as heroes and now there is very little community support. She also discusses vaccines and variants and how they impact the community and her frustration and empathy for people during this pandemic.
Transcription (Omeka Classic)
TCG 00:08
All right, I’m going to go over some statistics first, and then we’ll get into it. Good morning.
LJB 00:15
Morning.
TCG 00:17
It’s December 2, 2021, at 9:57am. Some statistical data related to the COVID 19 pandemic from the CVT CDC website that there has been 48,497,243 cases of COVID-19 with 780,131 deaths. The US vaccination rate is 197.4 million people fully vaccinated, with 41 point 9 million people having received their first booster as well. To put that into percentages that 70.4% of people in the US have at least one shot, 59.4% of the population is fully vaccinated. And 21.2% of the fully vaccinated people have had a booster. Um, moving on to Wisconsin, for context, I’ll say that Wisconsin has 5.822 million people. And Eau Claire County, where I live. Do you still live here?
LJB 01:28
Yep.
TCG 01:29
All right, where we live is 105,710 people, according to the 2020 US Census. And as of November 30, there had been 879,614 confirmed cases in Wisconsin and an average of nearly 2800 new cases per day for the last seven days. And Wisconsin has had 9052 deaths, with the most recent addre an average of 15 confirmed deaths per day. In the last seven days, in Wisconsin, there has been 7,697,130 vaccine doses admitted. So that’s all of the doses. So obviously, that’s more people that are in Wisconsin, but that’s how many shots we’ve given out. And the percentages are 59.6% of the population of Wisconsin is fully
vaccinated and 65.9% have a had at least one dose. I know that’s a lot of information. But this is an A data-sensitive topic with lots of moving parts. Okay. So I think I wanted to also just mentioned that according to the Eau Claire health department’s Eau Claire County is actually currently critically high for activity. And the positivity testing rate is also high. And our vaccination rate is decently high as well, which is good. It’s on the higher side of the spectrum, with 56% of people being vaccinated and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, so it’s just slightly higher than the average of the state. So, we’re gonna start with you again. Now, if you want to tell your name and mind sharing your demographic information with us one more time.
LJB 03:26
Sure. My name is Lindsey Jo Boehm. I’m a white female living in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and I’m 22 years old.
TCG 03:38
So this is Lindsay’s second interview, if you haven’t caught on to that, your first interview is in the archive already was from December 2020. And you interviewed with Jared Verdon, who took this class that semester, I was tasked with watching a previous oral interview for our class as an assignment, and I watched yours, I thought was really impactful and super interesting. And I was just curious to find out what the last year has been like for you since graduating in nursing and another year into the pandemic. So I just wanted to see how things have or have not changed for you. So first, let’s go with Are there any major life changes have you moved, new job, what’s going on?
LJB 04:28
Yes, um, so since December of last year, I graduated nursing school, so I’m no longer working as a nurse’s aide. I’m working as a nurse now. I’m in the same Eau Claire Hospital. I’m on the medical telemetry floor, which also has a progressive care unit. And so, progressive care is somewhere between general care and intensive care. It’s people who are a little bit sicker. We take (level) three patients instead of four, ideally. So career change, graduating college, I moved from my college house to an apartment near the hospital. I’m right on Half Moon Lake and right on the trail. So I really like that. Yeah, those have been the major, the major ones.
TCG 04:34
Okay, so first for other people and people like me who don’t know what telemetry means.
LJB 05:30
Oh, yeah, it’s, um, people who are on a heart monitor constantly. So it’s, it’s like the cardiac floor.
TCG 05:39
Okay,
LJB 05:40
The cardiac floor with a progressive care unit.
TCG 05:45
Is the progressive care unit, because you need more space for patients, you’re having a lot of patients in critical care.
LJB 05:53
Um, the floor I work on has always had a progressive care unit, even before the pandemic. I would say we take more progressive care patients now, but it always has existed.
TCG 06:06
Okay, so I’m going to try and go through some of your previous responses. And we’ll talk about what you said a year ago and how those things have changed.
LJB 06:18
Sure.
TCG 06:18
Have you watched it since or no?
LJB 06:20
You know what I did. I did go back and watch it. And it was really interesting. It’s amazing. Like, how much can change in a year and
TCG 06:30
Yeah, so just so you know, I also did it for a friend of mine last semester, so I was interviewed as well in your, so I rewatched. Mine, and it was very awkward for me.
LJB 06:41
Yeah, you never like how you look and sound on recording, but
TCG 06:45
Well, I had just gotten back from a run, and so I had like, my running jacket on and a headband, all sweaty, but I was like, yeah, here we are. So alright, um, so we’re going to discuss some previous things and how they might have changed. In response, when Jared asked you what are the primary things you do day to day, on a daily basis, that’s clearly have changed. Last time you said you’re a full-time nursing student, you were working as a nurse’s aide in the critical care care unit at Mayo. You are also doing research assistant work that’s super interesting. For a professor here on campus, and you also mentioned
hanging out with your roommates and family when you could and running (pointing at self) also a runner. Um, how has that changed for you now? Do you have roommates?
LJB 07:32
I do. Yeah, I have two of my same roommates from last year. One is also a nurse at Mayo. She’s up on the fifth floor. And one is it’s her first year as a teacher. She teaches third grade. So still love spending time with my roommates. I’ve gotten to spend more time with family. Since we have all been vaccinated. What else has changed? Still running and biking. Now I bought a used bike once I graduated. No longer a full-time student. I’m a full-time nurse now. And so I don’t work as a research assistant anymore. But I keep in close touch with my professor, Dr. Lorraine Smith. So
TCG 08:17
[unclear], I think that you had mentioned, um, we’ll just go in order. Okay. So, um, you said that a lot has changed clearly. But you still have some things that are the same and that you’ve been vaccinated. So you could spend more time with your family, which is very exciting. Um, can you feel the COVID fatigue at this point? I mean, it’s been a long time?
LJB 08:59
Yes. I think we even I can speak for myself that I felt fatigued last year at this time. So yes, I can feel the COVID fatigue in myself, and like, I can see it around me in my community as far as people maybe not masking quite as much. But I also think part of like the change in behavior with social distancing and masking has to do with the vaccine too; having the vaccine makes us feel safer to not mask or not social distance. So it’s layered. (TCG- Yeah), but
TCG 09:48
it’s tough. You This is actually what I was thinking of. You had said, and I don’t know that this is a verbatim quote, quote, quote, but it’s pretty close. “I’m glad I can clock out and go back to my life as a student because I couldn’t imagine working full time in the critical care unit right now.” Still feel the same?
LJB 10:11
Um, I? Well, I am a full-time nurse now, but I’m not in the critical care unit. And I think from word of mouth and from, like the positivity (test) rates, it… it feels like the critical care unit now, probably is not that far off from what it was like this time last year. So um, I’m glad, I don’t know, I couldn’t imagine working. There’s a full-time nurse right now. And I really respect the nurses who do, especially the ones who already went through the first wave. We do take COVID patients on the floor I work on, which has been really challenging. But we don’t take any intubated patients, any that need a breathing machine. So if they need a breathing machine, they have to be done in the critical care unit.
TCG 11:15
Alright. It’s tough. I have a good friend who’s an ER doctor; I think I’ve seen her one time since the pandemic started because she’s just exhausted and working all the time.
LJB 11:31
Yeah. And another change I’ve noticed is, it felt like there was more support for healthcare workers during the first wave, like people are calling nurses, heroes, and community, like people in the community were sending us sandwiches for lunch and like trying to set up resources for healthcare workers. And this time around, I think, with the fatigue and with like the divisiveness of the pandemic in general and the vaccine. Like, nurses are doing the same thing. They were a year ago and like not being called Heroes anymore, not being given that extra support anymore. So that’s been kind of tough,
TCG 12:16
It is it’s, it’s so hard. You had actually said that. He asked you where you kind of gotten your news, your media, and you said you went to like the CDC website because you trust them, mostly [unclear], MSNBC, and you follow the Eau Claire, public health Facebook, kind of for your main sources of COVID information. Is that still true? Yep, that’s all still true. And then we get like weekly updates our work with numbers, projected numbers, how many people in the hospital have COVID? How full our ICU is things like that. Is there a shortage of staffing at the hospital you work at? Has that been difficult?
LJB 13:11
That’s a complicated question.
TCG 13:15
Okay.
LJB 13:21
I’m not sure how much I can share. But it certainly feels like there is and we have a system where we can get texts at home when they need extra help. And I pretty much get a text every day that please come in. We need more staff. So
TCG 13:44
I am a sub for the school district. I know that teachers are also in short supply these days, a lot of fatigue and burnout there. And I get an email weekly with minimal 20 jobs that need to be for the week. I just got one again today with four new long-term positions that needed to be filled as soon as possible.
LJB 14:11
So my roommate Beth has, who is a teacher in Bloomer, has talked a lot about the need for subs, you know, when teachers have to quarantine or they’re out sick and no, really hear you on that. And I think the first wave of COVID burnout, a lot of, I mean, burnout was like such a buzzword in nursing even
before the pandemic. So adding a global pandemic on top of it, I think a lot a lot of nurses left the bedside; I don’t know the numbers, but…
TCG 14:42
I think a lot of caretakers care tasks people who care for people have really felt the blunt end of this.
LJB 14:52
Mm-hmm. Nurses, teachers, daycare workers, so many more.
TCG 14:57
Okay, so um, Your grandparents and aunt had caught COVID. And this affected your family pretty harshly. Moving your grandparents into a nursing home and dialysis and then the loss of that family dinner time weekly. You had already said it’s improved. But that was kind of my question if it had improved with better understanding of the virus and the vaccination’s access rate. And [unclear] mandates as well.
LJB 15:28
Yeah. So, um, at the beginning of this year, my grandparents were still living in a nursing home. And as soon as they could, they got their shots, and I got mine. And so, once that happened, we were able to visit them in the nursing home masked, which was great. My grandpa, who was on dialysis, passed away earlier this year. So that has been a big life change. But we were able to have a very small funeral. Because that was after the vaccine came out. And then my grandma is still in the nursing home, but we’re able to visit her all the time. She usually has a visitor three or four days a week between my aunt and my mom and myself and my cousins. So that’s a really nice peace of mind to be able to, like spend a little bit of time with her. And then my aunt, who was hospitalized, she’s fully recovered. She’s good, so
TCG 16:32
Good. I’m really very sorry to hear that about your grandfather.
LJB 16:36
Thanks.
TCG 16:38
Yeah, I’m tearing up a little bit. I’m invested in your life, Lindsey. Um, okay. So you had said also that one of the hardest things that you had to deal with? Was the frustration you had with people in your community? I know that I’ve also felt a lot of frustration with my community. So I’m wondering if it’s changed or gotten better? And how do you deal with those feelings?
LJB 17:10
Um, I think it really hasn’t changed a whole lot. Because the vaccine has been really divisive. And, you know, we have about, like you said about a 60% vaccination rate. And so that’s something I’ve been a little bit frustrated with, is people like refusing to get vaccinated or vaccinate their children, personally, just because of my personal beliefs, feelings, knowledge. So and as a nurse. Like, I’m the person who has to, I’m sometimes the person who asked to take care of these people call their wives and give their wives and update, call their wives to tell them that their husband has to go down to the critical care unit and get a tube down their throat for breathing. And having worked in the critical care unit, I know what that looks like and what those outcomes sometimes look like. So I still do sometimes feel a sense of frustration with the people around me who don’t view the virus and the vaccine the same way I do. And I guess I just find I deal with that by finding comfort in my close circle, who tend to be like-minded and tend to see that type of thing the same way I do. And also understanding that um just trying to understand and be empathetic to people’s viewpoints. And understand that not everybody grew up the same way I did. Not everybody had the same education and privileges. So yeah. That’s kind of how I deal with that.
TCG 19:10
Yeah, no joke. It is hard to see family. And friends, not trust you when you have specific knowledge on the topic. My father, for instance, is refusing to get vaccinated. I don’t know why or how this came about. I’ve been working fairly diligently to try and help him understand, but I also try and feel empathy for him as well because it’s so hard to change that fear.
LJB 19:54
Mm-hmm.
TCG 19:55
That’s what it is. It’s the fear that he has.
LJB 19:57
Mm-hmm.
TCG 19:58
That’s brought up by the divisive things in our country right now. I did think it was interesting that you brought up that people’s health and the fact that they were putting off elective surgeries and other preventative and delaying care was going to have an effect on the future. And I wonder if you’re kind of seeing the ramifications of that kind of you had mentioned, they had shut down preemptively before things have gotten bad in Wisconsin. And then they were kind of allowing things to happen again. But now we’re kind of in this weird phase where we’re aware, and we’re trying to cope with COVID and also trying to be what we were before. So how has that changed?
LJB 20:42
Well, I do think that has gotten better. The hospital is back to doing more ‘elective’ surgeries. Non emergent, I guess. And so usually, like will require will just rapid COVID Swab somebody right before surgery. So I think that the delay and care it has gotten a lot better. I still do think, like you said, Fear is so common. I still do think there are people who are fearful to come into the ER or come to their doctor visits. But hopefully, those are the people who will get vaccinated so they can feel some peace of mind. So yeah, I think that has improved with the vaccine and with the hospital, figuring out different testing strategies to resume more normal day-to-day activities while dealing with the pandemic on the inpatient side.
TCG 21:46
Thanks. Thank you. You also talked about that you thought Eau Claire and Wisconsin had done a pretty great job with the safety precautions and masks mandates. Two questions? Do you feel like that’s changed? And how did you feel when kind of the regulations and restrictions were relaxed? Forcefully.
LJB 22:12
Um, I feel like I’m not up to date enough on like the data to give a really solid opinion, to be honest with you. It seems like compared to other states, such as Florida, we’re doing pretty well. But I haven’t like kept up with like, state by state regulations quite as much as I’d maybe did a year ago. So too much of an opinion that way.
TCG 22:48
Very cool. Thank you. Okay. You had also discussed that you had a few friends who had gotten COVID-19 but had very minimal and not really been sick. The housemates, the house group you guys had together they had Yeah, the house had quite a few cases and, and everyone had still been pretty decently healthy afterwards, is that still remain the case?
LJB 23:21
That remains the case. Overall, like my, my friends, 20 Somethings more have gotten it. So for example, a few months after my first interview, two of my roommates got it. They hadn’t had the chance to be vaccinated quite yet. Um, I did. And my roommate, who was also a nurse’s assistant at the time, we both had our vaccines. So we were fortunate that we didn’t get it, but our two roommates, who were unvaccinated at the time, they got COVID and lost their sense of taste and smell. Felt like generally unwell, couldn’t go to their classes, but didn’t need to be hospitalized. My one roommate I’ll share has had some like lasting like pulmonary issues. She’s [unclear] Yeah, lasting long issues. Um, and like she has an inhaler now and stuff. But yeah, and then two of my friends who are nurses got COVID Despite being vaccinated, and they both got the infusion. And that really perked them up, and they didn’t need to be hospitalized. So overall, it’s still true that the young people in my life who have gotten it have not needed to be vaccinated, or sorry, have not needed to be hospitalized, and I felt okay.
TCG 25:02
Yeah. Same. I mean, I’m pretty lucky. My father also had COVID. Actually, he’s the only one that I’m really close with that has had COVID
LJB 25:13
That’s good.
TCG 25:13
Wasn’t bad. It was like, bad cold, I guess for a couple weeks. Oh, that’s true. I did have another friend that got it. And she said it felt like a little head cold. And she said, So taste and smell, which was weird.
LJB 25:25
Yeah.
TCG 25:27
But no long-lasting. But I have heard pretty commonly that residual, pulmonary, and breathing issues are actually what scared us and our family first because my husband was severely asthmatic as a kid, and my son is also. So we were pretty careful at the beginning as well, not that we aren’t careful now. But we’re all vaccinated now, so I feel a teeny bit safer.
LJB 25:50
Yeah. Good for you.
TCG 25:53
Okay, so have you been able to stay positive? Now working in there, you said you did a really good job, but then getting staying positive. So did I. Kind of tried to treat my kids as like, like a little extended vacation. And we were, you know, doing puzzles and trying new crafts and fun family activities. Do you see that you continue to do some of those things you used to stay positive now? Or have you gotten something new? Or how are you doing?
LJB 26:35
Um, I think to be honest, the longer the pandemic has gone on, the harder it’s gotten to stay positive. But I think overall, I’m a pretty positive person. And I have, like, so much to be thankful for my immediate family’s health, my health, um, you know, so I think just being I think, the pandemic has taught us all to be more thankful for the little things. So I guess, kind of gratitude for what I do have is how I stay positive. Yeah, it can be really tough. I definitely have my moments. But, but, yeah,
TCG 27:20
Yeah, well, good for you. I mean, you got to find the silver lining occasionally. LJB 27:24
Yeah definately.
TCG 27:26
I mean, you did say that last time that you you know, you try to remain positive and have empathetic feelings for others. And.
LJB 27:34
Mm-hmm.
TCG 27:36
Okay. Yes. See, you said here that the pandemic made you feel more grateful for what you had and better able to live in the present? Because you were
LJB 27:45
That’s true.
TCG 27:46
[unclear] minded? Do you think that that helped you kind of stay a little more balanced here?
LJB 27:54
Yeah, um, because the future, the future became so unpredictable. So you just, at some point, you give up planning for it. And you just learned to, like,-
TCG 28:07
embrace it!
LJB 28:08
-go with the flow. You’re on the ride on the journey and start to take days and weeks as they come. So, I think that’s been a good overall life lesson for me.
TCG 28:20
Nice. Awesome. You had said that the future in the future, people need to be more empathetic and caring to people around them. And I was wondering if, at that point, you probably weren’t thinking about this interview in the future obviously didn’t know. Saying that. Do you think that we did you think that we would be where we are right now? A year ago?
LJB 28:52
Oh, gosh, that’s a good question. Well, a year ago, I knew a vaccine was coming. And that made me feel really hopeful. But we also didn’t have so many variants. And I didn’t realize how hard it would be to convince people to get vaccinated. Um, I knew that the virus would become kind of endemic like the flu.
To be honest, I, I don’t think I foresaw it still being this bad. I mean, we’re, like you had mentioned in the beginning of the interview, we’re kind of in a, like, critical period right now. And Eau Claire, kind of another wave, if you will. Um, and I don’t think I foresaw it still being this bad still like sometimes having to put the entire hospital on bypass, still having people intubated and prolonged in ICU. So no, I don’t. I don’t know if I knew it was gonna still be quite This bad but
TCG 30:02
I think I had one spark of hope over the summer. I did research the summer, so I was at the library a lot. So there was like, I feel like a week where they’re like, you don’t have to wear your mask. You’re vaccinated. And I was like, yes!
LJB 30:15
Yeah,
TCG 30:16
I went shopping all of one time was without a mask. And then, Oh! Well…
LJB 30:22
yeah
TCG 30:25
You didn’t talk about last time because we didn’t really have it yet was the vaccine. And you’ve mentioned that you got vaccinated right away. Do you mind sharing which vaccination you got? Um,
LJB 30:40
I think I got Pfizer. Yes, I got Pfizer because that was the first one that was available to health care workers. And I literally got it the day it became available. And so did my mom because she’s a healthcare worker, too. And then I got my my second shot when I was due for that, which I think would have been January of this year. And then I’ve had my booster.
TCG 31:03
And was your booster also Pfizer?
LJB 31:05
Yes.
TCG 31:07
Did you have any side effects, mild, moderate major?
LJB 31:14
Not really. I remember like being really tired for a day after my second shot. And then when I got my booster, I got my booster, and my flu shot the same day at the same arm, which I say is safe. Um, I, I felt kind of flu-ish for like a day, but I’m guessing that was just the flu shot. So besides, like a sore arm and kind of those typical post-vaccination symptoms, no issues. And husband
TCG 31:45
My husband also made the mistake of getting both at the same time or positive. I guess if you just deal with it all at once.
LJB 31:51
Yeah.
TCG 31:57
You obviously didn’t have difficulty as a healthcare worker they kind of shoved them at you guys first, and then educators came show me for that. I got mine in March. I did get the Johnson and Johnson probably a week before they did the shutdown of the vaccine.
LJB 32:15
Oh, when they put it on pause.
TCG 32:17
Yeah, I was not worried.
LJB 32:20
Yeah,
TCG 32:20
I trust statistics. And I feel like, I mean, I’m glad they put it on pause to figure out exactly what was going on.
LJB 32:27
Mm-hmm.
TCG 32:28
But it was actually kind of funny because I had snuck my mom in to get a vaccine. And she also got the Johnson and Johnson, and it was, I think the next day they paused it, and I was like, wow, you’re probably Yeah, right.
LJB 32:39
Yeah.
TCG 32:40
And then I actually got the Maderna booster. I think. Um, and I did have side effects from that. But it wasn’t bad. It was just some lymph nodes.
LJB 32:53
I’ve heard of that. Yeah. Which was super
TCG 32:55
weird. At first, I was like, oh, no, I have breast cancer. I can’t lay on the side. And then I looked it up. And I was like, oh, no, that’s like a really common side effect for Maderna.
LJB 33:03
Yeah, I’veheard of some people getting swollen lymph nodes on that side of their body.
TCG 33:08
Um, do you think that there’s any important issues regarding both the vaccine and hospitalizations and the pandemic that media is not covering? That would be helpful?
LJB 33:25
Hmm. That’s a really good question. Um, well, it depends on the kind of media you’re talking about.
TCG 33:34
Fair, fair,
LJB 33:35
We have a really kind of in terms of like daytime news, we have a really divided situation. I think overall, like the pandemic is old news now. So maybe not like, I think maybe not reporting on the gravity of the situation right now. For example, like last year, at this time, like our local news station was outside of the critical care unit reporting about how it was full. Well, it’s still full. It’s full again. And like, nobody’s like standing outside in the cold outside the critical care unit interviewing hospital officials. So yeah.
TCG 34:27
Do you think that’s tied to the fatigue that people just don’t want to hear it anymore?
LJB 34:31
Yeah. And I can’t, you know, I I can understand that attitude. I not saying it’s right, but I can understand that people are just like, sick of hearing about it.
TCG 34:42
It’s tough.
LJB 34:44
It is really tough.
TCG 34:45
I think you mentioned that you had, you know, most of your close circle was, were people who were like-minded, but that you had people outside well in your circle that maybe didn’t feel exactly the same way you did. About all of it, basically, because it’s all turned into one issue, right, like vaccinated, un vaccinated.
LJB 35:09
Mm-hmm.
35:10
COVID measures, anti COVID measures
LJB 35:12
Mm-hmm.
35:13
really come to be very politicized. Do do you feel like there’s room that is going to improve?
LJB 35:28
I hope so.
TCG 35:30
I hope so.
LJB 35:31
I have to be hopeful that, like, we can continue to provide education for people. And maybe those people who were a little fearful of the vaccine, when it first came out, will gain some trust over time, as as they see, you know, okay, it’s been out for a year now, you know, over half of Wisconsin has it, and nothing’s, you know, supercritical has happened to the people who have gotten it. So. Yeah.
TCG 36:06
I that is a tough question. Admittedly, when I wrote it, I knew that it would be a tough answer because I feel probably very similar to how you you. You mentioned the variants earlier. And I should mention that we have had the Delta variant, for gosh, I don’t know how long has been the Delta bet or not?
LJB 36:32
Google it quick.
TCG 36:47
Wow, it was shortly after your last interview. So December 2020. We had the Delta variant. So we have regular COVID. Right. And that’s got a transmission rate, and the Delta variants transmission rate is higher.
LJB 37:03
Mm-hmm.
TCG 37:04
Correct, and a teensy bit more dangerous. And now was it last week or two weeks ago? Last week, we have a new variant that they identified. Omicron, everyone’s has it different?
LJB 37:19
Omicron? Yeah, something like that.
TCG 37:23
This- this, you had mentioned that this is kind of like it just feels like it’s never-ending. But like, does this concern you? Or do you think that this will move things forward more easily? With people seeing that the people who are most affected statistically, they’ve shown that the people that are hospitalized are more unvaccinated than non vaccinated, right? The percentages are pretty stark, like, a crazy amount
of people that are unvaccinated are hospitalized, and like a very small amount, people that are actually vaccinated have the breakthrough cases and are hospitalized. And now these variants getting more deadly and scary. Do you think that’s going to help move people towards getting the vaccine or being more careful?
LJB 38:11
That’s a good question. I would certainly hope that these variants would maybe help give people the push they need to get vaccinated. I also think that, like everything else, it’s just been really divisive. Because I hear people say, like- I hear people say- well, I got vaccinated and or my friend got vaccinated, and they still got COVID, they got the Delta variant. So what’s the point? Well, we know statistically, and I know, kind of firsthand, that people who are vaccinated are less likely to be hospitalized and or need a ventilator and, or die in the hospital. And then I think people need to understand, like, some basic high school level science, which is, every time a virus replicates, that is a chance for it to mutate, each each time the DNA is replicated, the DNA can mutate spontaneously. So when we have people who aren’t getting vaccinated, every time it spreads from one person to another, it
has the opp- the virus has the opportunity to mutate. And that’s why we need to achieve like a higher overall percentage vaccinated. Right? It’s like the flu, like herd immunity. Even if you think you’re not at risk, even if you think if you get it, you won’t get super sick. You need to get vaccinated to protect the people around you. And to keep the virus from mutating, that vaccine works best if everybody gets it
TCG 40:02
Mm-hmm.
LJB 40:02
-so that the virus can’t mutate to, to mutate so much that now the vaccine doesn’t protect against it.
TCG 40:13
Well, I think that you’re probably just prepared for anything that has to come for your nursing future, having started nursing in a global pandemic. And then it has touched your life in many ways. And
LJB 40:27
Mm-hmm.
TCG 40:27
-say thank you for sharing that story with us. It’ll be great for people who want to see in the future, and I think it’s extremely valuable to come back again a year later. Historically, pandemics last for a long time. And I think people were very hopeful at the beginning that it wouldn’t be this long. And now we’re in a situation where it’s very clear that we need to do the work and, and you having first hand knowledge being in the medical field is invaluable to this archive. So I just want to say thank you again for joining me and, and, and taking your time to talk with me today. Is there any parting words you’d like to say before we go?
LJB 41:12
I don’t think so. Just thank you for your time. And yeah, a lot has and has not changed in a year. So this has been like really interesting. So yeah, thank you for your time too.
All right, I’m going to go over some statistics first, and then we’ll get into it. Good morning.
LJB 00:15
Morning.
TCG 00:17
It’s December 2, 2021, at 9:57am. Some statistical data related to the COVID 19 pandemic from the CVT CDC website that there has been 48,497,243 cases of COVID-19 with 780,131 deaths. The US vaccination rate is 197.4 million people fully vaccinated, with 41 point 9 million people having received their first booster as well. To put that into percentages that 70.4% of people in the US have at least one shot, 59.4% of the population is fully vaccinated. And 21.2% of the fully vaccinated people have had a booster. Um, moving on to Wisconsin, for context, I’ll say that Wisconsin has 5.822 million people. And Eau Claire County, where I live. Do you still live here?
LJB 01:28
Yep.
TCG 01:29
All right, where we live is 105,710 people, according to the 2020 US Census. And as of November 30, there had been 879,614 confirmed cases in Wisconsin and an average of nearly 2800 new cases per day for the last seven days. And Wisconsin has had 9052 deaths, with the most recent addre an average of 15 confirmed deaths per day. In the last seven days, in Wisconsin, there has been 7,697,130 vaccine doses admitted. So that’s all of the doses. So obviously, that’s more people that are in Wisconsin, but that’s how many shots we’ve given out. And the percentages are 59.6% of the population of Wisconsin is fully
vaccinated and 65.9% have a had at least one dose. I know that’s a lot of information. But this is an A data-sensitive topic with lots of moving parts. Okay. So I think I wanted to also just mentioned that according to the Eau Claire health department’s Eau Claire County is actually currently critically high for activity. And the positivity testing rate is also high. And our vaccination rate is decently high as well, which is good. It’s on the higher side of the spectrum, with 56% of people being vaccinated and Eau Claire, Wisconsin, so it’s just slightly higher than the average of the state. So, we’re gonna start with you again. Now, if you want to tell your name and mind sharing your demographic information with us one more time.
LJB 03:26
Sure. My name is Lindsey Jo Boehm. I’m a white female living in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, and I’m 22 years old.
TCG 03:38
So this is Lindsay’s second interview, if you haven’t caught on to that, your first interview is in the archive already was from December 2020. And you interviewed with Jared Verdon, who took this class that semester, I was tasked with watching a previous oral interview for our class as an assignment, and I watched yours, I thought was really impactful and super interesting. And I was just curious to find out what the last year has been like for you since graduating in nursing and another year into the pandemic. So I just wanted to see how things have or have not changed for you. So first, let’s go with Are there any major life changes have you moved, new job, what’s going on?
LJB 04:28
Yes, um, so since December of last year, I graduated nursing school, so I’m no longer working as a nurse’s aide. I’m working as a nurse now. I’m in the same Eau Claire Hospital. I’m on the medical telemetry floor, which also has a progressive care unit. And so, progressive care is somewhere between general care and intensive care. It’s people who are a little bit sicker. We take (level) three patients instead of four, ideally. So career change, graduating college, I moved from my college house to an apartment near the hospital. I’m right on Half Moon Lake and right on the trail. So I really like that. Yeah, those have been the major, the major ones.
TCG 04:34
Okay, so first for other people and people like me who don’t know what telemetry means.
LJB 05:30
Oh, yeah, it’s, um, people who are on a heart monitor constantly. So it’s, it’s like the cardiac floor.
TCG 05:39
Okay,
LJB 05:40
The cardiac floor with a progressive care unit.
TCG 05:45
Is the progressive care unit, because you need more space for patients, you’re having a lot of patients in critical care.
LJB 05:53
Um, the floor I work on has always had a progressive care unit, even before the pandemic. I would say we take more progressive care patients now, but it always has existed.
TCG 06:06
Okay, so I’m going to try and go through some of your previous responses. And we’ll talk about what you said a year ago and how those things have changed.
LJB 06:18
Sure.
TCG 06:18
Have you watched it since or no?
LJB 06:20
You know what I did. I did go back and watch it. And it was really interesting. It’s amazing. Like, how much can change in a year and
TCG 06:30
Yeah, so just so you know, I also did it for a friend of mine last semester, so I was interviewed as well in your, so I rewatched. Mine, and it was very awkward for me.
LJB 06:41
Yeah, you never like how you look and sound on recording, but
TCG 06:45
Well, I had just gotten back from a run, and so I had like, my running jacket on and a headband, all sweaty, but I was like, yeah, here we are. So alright, um, so we’re going to discuss some previous things and how they might have changed. In response, when Jared asked you what are the primary things you do day to day, on a daily basis, that’s clearly have changed. Last time you said you’re a full-time nursing student, you were working as a nurse’s aide in the critical care care unit at Mayo. You are also doing research assistant work that’s super interesting. For a professor here on campus, and you also mentioned
hanging out with your roommates and family when you could and running (pointing at self) also a runner. Um, how has that changed for you now? Do you have roommates?
LJB 07:32
I do. Yeah, I have two of my same roommates from last year. One is also a nurse at Mayo. She’s up on the fifth floor. And one is it’s her first year as a teacher. She teaches third grade. So still love spending time with my roommates. I’ve gotten to spend more time with family. Since we have all been vaccinated. What else has changed? Still running and biking. Now I bought a used bike once I graduated. No longer a full-time student. I’m a full-time nurse now. And so I don’t work as a research assistant anymore. But I keep in close touch with my professor, Dr. Lorraine Smith. So
TCG 08:17
[unclear], I think that you had mentioned, um, we’ll just go in order. Okay. So, um, you said that a lot has changed clearly. But you still have some things that are the same and that you’ve been vaccinated. So you could spend more time with your family, which is very exciting. Um, can you feel the COVID fatigue at this point? I mean, it’s been a long time?
LJB 08:59
Yes. I think we even I can speak for myself that I felt fatigued last year at this time. So yes, I can feel the COVID fatigue in myself, and like, I can see it around me in my community as far as people maybe not masking quite as much. But I also think part of like the change in behavior with social distancing and masking has to do with the vaccine too; having the vaccine makes us feel safer to not mask or not social distance. So it’s layered. (TCG- Yeah), but
TCG 09:48
it’s tough. You This is actually what I was thinking of. You had said, and I don’t know that this is a verbatim quote, quote, quote, but it’s pretty close. “I’m glad I can clock out and go back to my life as a student because I couldn’t imagine working full time in the critical care unit right now.” Still feel the same?
LJB 10:11
Um, I? Well, I am a full-time nurse now, but I’m not in the critical care unit. And I think from word of mouth and from, like the positivity (test) rates, it… it feels like the critical care unit now, probably is not that far off from what it was like this time last year. So um, I’m glad, I don’t know, I couldn’t imagine working. There’s a full-time nurse right now. And I really respect the nurses who do, especially the ones who already went through the first wave. We do take COVID patients on the floor I work on, which has been really challenging. But we don’t take any intubated patients, any that need a breathing machine. So if they need a breathing machine, they have to be done in the critical care unit.
TCG 11:15
Alright. It’s tough. I have a good friend who’s an ER doctor; I think I’ve seen her one time since the pandemic started because she’s just exhausted and working all the time.
LJB 11:31
Yeah. And another change I’ve noticed is, it felt like there was more support for healthcare workers during the first wave, like people are calling nurses, heroes, and community, like people in the community were sending us sandwiches for lunch and like trying to set up resources for healthcare workers. And this time around, I think, with the fatigue and with like the divisiveness of the pandemic in general and the vaccine. Like, nurses are doing the same thing. They were a year ago and like not being called Heroes anymore, not being given that extra support anymore. So that’s been kind of tough,
TCG 12:16
It is it’s, it’s so hard. You had actually said that. He asked you where you kind of gotten your news, your media, and you said you went to like the CDC website because you trust them, mostly [unclear], MSNBC, and you follow the Eau Claire, public health Facebook, kind of for your main sources of COVID information. Is that still true? Yep, that’s all still true. And then we get like weekly updates our work with numbers, projected numbers, how many people in the hospital have COVID? How full our ICU is things like that. Is there a shortage of staffing at the hospital you work at? Has that been difficult?
LJB 13:11
That’s a complicated question.
TCG 13:15
Okay.
LJB 13:21
I’m not sure how much I can share. But it certainly feels like there is and we have a system where we can get texts at home when they need extra help. And I pretty much get a text every day that please come in. We need more staff. So
TCG 13:44
I am a sub for the school district. I know that teachers are also in short supply these days, a lot of fatigue and burnout there. And I get an email weekly with minimal 20 jobs that need to be for the week. I just got one again today with four new long-term positions that needed to be filled as soon as possible.
LJB 14:11
So my roommate Beth has, who is a teacher in Bloomer, has talked a lot about the need for subs, you know, when teachers have to quarantine or they’re out sick and no, really hear you on that. And I think the first wave of COVID burnout, a lot of, I mean, burnout was like such a buzzword in nursing even
before the pandemic. So adding a global pandemic on top of it, I think a lot a lot of nurses left the bedside; I don’t know the numbers, but…
TCG 14:42
I think a lot of caretakers care tasks people who care for people have really felt the blunt end of this.
LJB 14:52
Mm-hmm. Nurses, teachers, daycare workers, so many more.
TCG 14:57
Okay, so um, Your grandparents and aunt had caught COVID. And this affected your family pretty harshly. Moving your grandparents into a nursing home and dialysis and then the loss of that family dinner time weekly. You had already said it’s improved. But that was kind of my question if it had improved with better understanding of the virus and the vaccination’s access rate. And [unclear] mandates as well.
LJB 15:28
Yeah. So, um, at the beginning of this year, my grandparents were still living in a nursing home. And as soon as they could, they got their shots, and I got mine. And so, once that happened, we were able to visit them in the nursing home masked, which was great. My grandpa, who was on dialysis, passed away earlier this year. So that has been a big life change. But we were able to have a very small funeral. Because that was after the vaccine came out. And then my grandma is still in the nursing home, but we’re able to visit her all the time. She usually has a visitor three or four days a week between my aunt and my mom and myself and my cousins. So that’s a really nice peace of mind to be able to, like spend a little bit of time with her. And then my aunt, who was hospitalized, she’s fully recovered. She’s good, so
TCG 16:32
Good. I’m really very sorry to hear that about your grandfather.
LJB 16:36
Thanks.
TCG 16:38
Yeah, I’m tearing up a little bit. I’m invested in your life, Lindsey. Um, okay. So you had said also that one of the hardest things that you had to deal with? Was the frustration you had with people in your community? I know that I’ve also felt a lot of frustration with my community. So I’m wondering if it’s changed or gotten better? And how do you deal with those feelings?
LJB 17:10
Um, I think it really hasn’t changed a whole lot. Because the vaccine has been really divisive. And, you know, we have about, like you said about a 60% vaccination rate. And so that’s something I’ve been a little bit frustrated with, is people like refusing to get vaccinated or vaccinate their children, personally, just because of my personal beliefs, feelings, knowledge. So and as a nurse. Like, I’m the person who has to, I’m sometimes the person who asked to take care of these people call their wives and give their wives and update, call their wives to tell them that their husband has to go down to the critical care unit and get a tube down their throat for breathing. And having worked in the critical care unit, I know what that looks like and what those outcomes sometimes look like. So I still do sometimes feel a sense of frustration with the people around me who don’t view the virus and the vaccine the same way I do. And I guess I just find I deal with that by finding comfort in my close circle, who tend to be like-minded and tend to see that type of thing the same way I do. And also understanding that um just trying to understand and be empathetic to people’s viewpoints. And understand that not everybody grew up the same way I did. Not everybody had the same education and privileges. So yeah. That’s kind of how I deal with that.
TCG 19:10
Yeah, no joke. It is hard to see family. And friends, not trust you when you have specific knowledge on the topic. My father, for instance, is refusing to get vaccinated. I don’t know why or how this came about. I’ve been working fairly diligently to try and help him understand, but I also try and feel empathy for him as well because it’s so hard to change that fear.
LJB 19:54
Mm-hmm.
TCG 19:55
That’s what it is. It’s the fear that he has.
LJB 19:57
Mm-hmm.
TCG 19:58
That’s brought up by the divisive things in our country right now. I did think it was interesting that you brought up that people’s health and the fact that they were putting off elective surgeries and other preventative and delaying care was going to have an effect on the future. And I wonder if you’re kind of seeing the ramifications of that kind of you had mentioned, they had shut down preemptively before things have gotten bad in Wisconsin. And then they were kind of allowing things to happen again. But now we’re kind of in this weird phase where we’re aware, and we’re trying to cope with COVID and also trying to be what we were before. So how has that changed?
LJB 20:42
Well, I do think that has gotten better. The hospital is back to doing more ‘elective’ surgeries. Non emergent, I guess. And so usually, like will require will just rapid COVID Swab somebody right before surgery. So I think that the delay and care it has gotten a lot better. I still do think, like you said, Fear is so common. I still do think there are people who are fearful to come into the ER or come to their doctor visits. But hopefully, those are the people who will get vaccinated so they can feel some peace of mind. So yeah, I think that has improved with the vaccine and with the hospital, figuring out different testing strategies to resume more normal day-to-day activities while dealing with the pandemic on the inpatient side.
TCG 21:46
Thanks. Thank you. You also talked about that you thought Eau Claire and Wisconsin had done a pretty great job with the safety precautions and masks mandates. Two questions? Do you feel like that’s changed? And how did you feel when kind of the regulations and restrictions were relaxed? Forcefully.
LJB 22:12
Um, I feel like I’m not up to date enough on like the data to give a really solid opinion, to be honest with you. It seems like compared to other states, such as Florida, we’re doing pretty well. But I haven’t like kept up with like, state by state regulations quite as much as I’d maybe did a year ago. So too much of an opinion that way.
TCG 22:48
Very cool. Thank you. Okay. You had also discussed that you had a few friends who had gotten COVID-19 but had very minimal and not really been sick. The housemates, the house group you guys had together they had Yeah, the house had quite a few cases and, and everyone had still been pretty decently healthy afterwards, is that still remain the case?
LJB 23:21
That remains the case. Overall, like my, my friends, 20 Somethings more have gotten it. So for example, a few months after my first interview, two of my roommates got it. They hadn’t had the chance to be vaccinated quite yet. Um, I did. And my roommate, who was also a nurse’s assistant at the time, we both had our vaccines. So we were fortunate that we didn’t get it, but our two roommates, who were unvaccinated at the time, they got COVID and lost their sense of taste and smell. Felt like generally unwell, couldn’t go to their classes, but didn’t need to be hospitalized. My one roommate I’ll share has had some like lasting like pulmonary issues. She’s [unclear] Yeah, lasting long issues. Um, and like she has an inhaler now and stuff. But yeah, and then two of my friends who are nurses got COVID Despite being vaccinated, and they both got the infusion. And that really perked them up, and they didn’t need to be hospitalized. So overall, it’s still true that the young people in my life who have gotten it have not needed to be vaccinated, or sorry, have not needed to be hospitalized, and I felt okay.
TCG 25:02
Yeah. Same. I mean, I’m pretty lucky. My father also had COVID. Actually, he’s the only one that I’m really close with that has had COVID
LJB 25:13
That’s good.
TCG 25:13
Wasn’t bad. It was like, bad cold, I guess for a couple weeks. Oh, that’s true. I did have another friend that got it. And she said it felt like a little head cold. And she said, So taste and smell, which was weird.
LJB 25:25
Yeah.
TCG 25:27
But no long-lasting. But I have heard pretty commonly that residual, pulmonary, and breathing issues are actually what scared us and our family first because my husband was severely asthmatic as a kid, and my son is also. So we were pretty careful at the beginning as well, not that we aren’t careful now. But we’re all vaccinated now, so I feel a teeny bit safer.
LJB 25:50
Yeah. Good for you.
TCG 25:53
Okay, so have you been able to stay positive? Now working in there, you said you did a really good job, but then getting staying positive. So did I. Kind of tried to treat my kids as like, like a little extended vacation. And we were, you know, doing puzzles and trying new crafts and fun family activities. Do you see that you continue to do some of those things you used to stay positive now? Or have you gotten something new? Or how are you doing?
LJB 26:35
Um, I think to be honest, the longer the pandemic has gone on, the harder it’s gotten to stay positive. But I think overall, I’m a pretty positive person. And I have, like, so much to be thankful for my immediate family’s health, my health, um, you know, so I think just being I think, the pandemic has taught us all to be more thankful for the little things. So I guess, kind of gratitude for what I do have is how I stay positive. Yeah, it can be really tough. I definitely have my moments. But, but, yeah,
TCG 27:20
Yeah, well, good for you. I mean, you got to find the silver lining occasionally. LJB 27:24
Yeah definately.
TCG 27:26
I mean, you did say that last time that you you know, you try to remain positive and have empathetic feelings for others. And.
LJB 27:34
Mm-hmm.
TCG 27:36
Okay. Yes. See, you said here that the pandemic made you feel more grateful for what you had and better able to live in the present? Because you were
LJB 27:45
That’s true.
TCG 27:46
[unclear] minded? Do you think that that helped you kind of stay a little more balanced here?
LJB 27:54
Yeah, um, because the future, the future became so unpredictable. So you just, at some point, you give up planning for it. And you just learned to, like,-
TCG 28:07
embrace it!
LJB 28:08
-go with the flow. You’re on the ride on the journey and start to take days and weeks as they come. So, I think that’s been a good overall life lesson for me.
TCG 28:20
Nice. Awesome. You had said that the future in the future, people need to be more empathetic and caring to people around them. And I was wondering if, at that point, you probably weren’t thinking about this interview in the future obviously didn’t know. Saying that. Do you think that we did you think that we would be where we are right now? A year ago?
LJB 28:52
Oh, gosh, that’s a good question. Well, a year ago, I knew a vaccine was coming. And that made me feel really hopeful. But we also didn’t have so many variants. And I didn’t realize how hard it would be to convince people to get vaccinated. Um, I knew that the virus would become kind of endemic like the flu.
To be honest, I, I don’t think I foresaw it still being this bad. I mean, we’re, like you had mentioned in the beginning of the interview, we’re kind of in a, like, critical period right now. And Eau Claire, kind of another wave, if you will. Um, and I don’t think I foresaw it still being this bad still like sometimes having to put the entire hospital on bypass, still having people intubated and prolonged in ICU. So no, I don’t. I don’t know if I knew it was gonna still be quite This bad but
TCG 30:02
I think I had one spark of hope over the summer. I did research the summer, so I was at the library a lot. So there was like, I feel like a week where they’re like, you don’t have to wear your mask. You’re vaccinated. And I was like, yes!
LJB 30:15
Yeah,
TCG 30:16
I went shopping all of one time was without a mask. And then, Oh! Well…
LJB 30:22
yeah
TCG 30:25
You didn’t talk about last time because we didn’t really have it yet was the vaccine. And you’ve mentioned that you got vaccinated right away. Do you mind sharing which vaccination you got? Um,
LJB 30:40
I think I got Pfizer. Yes, I got Pfizer because that was the first one that was available to health care workers. And I literally got it the day it became available. And so did my mom because she’s a healthcare worker, too. And then I got my my second shot when I was due for that, which I think would have been January of this year. And then I’ve had my booster.
TCG 31:03
And was your booster also Pfizer?
LJB 31:05
Yes.
TCG 31:07
Did you have any side effects, mild, moderate major?
LJB 31:14
Not really. I remember like being really tired for a day after my second shot. And then when I got my booster, I got my booster, and my flu shot the same day at the same arm, which I say is safe. Um, I, I felt kind of flu-ish for like a day, but I’m guessing that was just the flu shot. So besides, like a sore arm and kind of those typical post-vaccination symptoms, no issues. And husband
TCG 31:45
My husband also made the mistake of getting both at the same time or positive. I guess if you just deal with it all at once.
LJB 31:51
Yeah.
TCG 31:57
You obviously didn’t have difficulty as a healthcare worker they kind of shoved them at you guys first, and then educators came show me for that. I got mine in March. I did get the Johnson and Johnson probably a week before they did the shutdown of the vaccine.
LJB 32:15
Oh, when they put it on pause.
TCG 32:17
Yeah, I was not worried.
LJB 32:20
Yeah,
TCG 32:20
I trust statistics. And I feel like, I mean, I’m glad they put it on pause to figure out exactly what was going on.
LJB 32:27
Mm-hmm.
TCG 32:28
But it was actually kind of funny because I had snuck my mom in to get a vaccine. And she also got the Johnson and Johnson, and it was, I think the next day they paused it, and I was like, wow, you’re probably Yeah, right.
LJB 32:39
Yeah.
TCG 32:40
And then I actually got the Maderna booster. I think. Um, and I did have side effects from that. But it wasn’t bad. It was just some lymph nodes.
LJB 32:53
I’ve heard of that. Yeah. Which was super
TCG 32:55
weird. At first, I was like, oh, no, I have breast cancer. I can’t lay on the side. And then I looked it up. And I was like, oh, no, that’s like a really common side effect for Maderna.
LJB 33:03
Yeah, I’veheard of some people getting swollen lymph nodes on that side of their body.
TCG 33:08
Um, do you think that there’s any important issues regarding both the vaccine and hospitalizations and the pandemic that media is not covering? That would be helpful?
LJB 33:25
Hmm. That’s a really good question. Um, well, it depends on the kind of media you’re talking about.
TCG 33:34
Fair, fair,
LJB 33:35
We have a really kind of in terms of like daytime news, we have a really divided situation. I think overall, like the pandemic is old news now. So maybe not like, I think maybe not reporting on the gravity of the situation right now. For example, like last year, at this time, like our local news station was outside of the critical care unit reporting about how it was full. Well, it’s still full. It’s full again. And like, nobody’s like standing outside in the cold outside the critical care unit interviewing hospital officials. So yeah.
TCG 34:27
Do you think that’s tied to the fatigue that people just don’t want to hear it anymore?
LJB 34:31
Yeah. And I can’t, you know, I I can understand that attitude. I not saying it’s right, but I can understand that people are just like, sick of hearing about it.
TCG 34:42
It’s tough.
LJB 34:44
It is really tough.
TCG 34:45
I think you mentioned that you had, you know, most of your close circle was, were people who were like-minded, but that you had people outside well in your circle that maybe didn’t feel exactly the same way you did. About all of it, basically, because it’s all turned into one issue, right, like vaccinated, un vaccinated.
LJB 35:09
Mm-hmm.
35:10
COVID measures, anti COVID measures
LJB 35:12
Mm-hmm.
35:13
really come to be very politicized. Do do you feel like there’s room that is going to improve?
LJB 35:28
I hope so.
TCG 35:30
I hope so.
LJB 35:31
I have to be hopeful that, like, we can continue to provide education for people. And maybe those people who were a little fearful of the vaccine, when it first came out, will gain some trust over time, as as they see, you know, okay, it’s been out for a year now, you know, over half of Wisconsin has it, and nothing’s, you know, supercritical has happened to the people who have gotten it. So. Yeah.
TCG 36:06
I that is a tough question. Admittedly, when I wrote it, I knew that it would be a tough answer because I feel probably very similar to how you you. You mentioned the variants earlier. And I should mention that we have had the Delta variant, for gosh, I don’t know how long has been the Delta bet or not?
LJB 36:32
Google it quick.
TCG 36:47
Wow, it was shortly after your last interview. So December 2020. We had the Delta variant. So we have regular COVID. Right. And that’s got a transmission rate, and the Delta variants transmission rate is higher.
LJB 37:03
Mm-hmm.
TCG 37:04
Correct, and a teensy bit more dangerous. And now was it last week or two weeks ago? Last week, we have a new variant that they identified. Omicron, everyone’s has it different?
LJB 37:19
Omicron? Yeah, something like that.
TCG 37:23
This- this, you had mentioned that this is kind of like it just feels like it’s never-ending. But like, does this concern you? Or do you think that this will move things forward more easily? With people seeing that the people who are most affected statistically, they’ve shown that the people that are hospitalized are more unvaccinated than non vaccinated, right? The percentages are pretty stark, like, a crazy amount
of people that are unvaccinated are hospitalized, and like a very small amount, people that are actually vaccinated have the breakthrough cases and are hospitalized. And now these variants getting more deadly and scary. Do you think that’s going to help move people towards getting the vaccine or being more careful?
LJB 38:11
That’s a good question. I would certainly hope that these variants would maybe help give people the push they need to get vaccinated. I also think that, like everything else, it’s just been really divisive. Because I hear people say, like- I hear people say- well, I got vaccinated and or my friend got vaccinated, and they still got COVID, they got the Delta variant. So what’s the point? Well, we know statistically, and I know, kind of firsthand, that people who are vaccinated are less likely to be hospitalized and or need a ventilator and, or die in the hospital. And then I think people need to understand, like, some basic high school level science, which is, every time a virus replicates, that is a chance for it to mutate, each each time the DNA is replicated, the DNA can mutate spontaneously. So when we have people who aren’t getting vaccinated, every time it spreads from one person to another, it
has the opp- the virus has the opportunity to mutate. And that’s why we need to achieve like a higher overall percentage vaccinated. Right? It’s like the flu, like herd immunity. Even if you think you’re not at risk, even if you think if you get it, you won’t get super sick. You need to get vaccinated to protect the people around you. And to keep the virus from mutating, that vaccine works best if everybody gets it
TCG 40:02
Mm-hmm.
LJB 40:02
-so that the virus can’t mutate to, to mutate so much that now the vaccine doesn’t protect against it.
TCG 40:13
Well, I think that you’re probably just prepared for anything that has to come for your nursing future, having started nursing in a global pandemic. And then it has touched your life in many ways. And
LJB 40:27
Mm-hmm.
TCG 40:27
-say thank you for sharing that story with us. It’ll be great for people who want to see in the future, and I think it’s extremely valuable to come back again a year later. Historically, pandemics last for a long time. And I think people were very hopeful at the beginning that it wouldn’t be this long. And now we’re in a situation where it’s very clear that we need to do the work and, and you having first hand knowledge being in the medical field is invaluable to this archive. So I just want to say thank you again for joining me and, and, and taking your time to talk with me today. Is there any parting words you’d like to say before we go?
LJB 41:12
I don’t think so. Just thank you for your time. And yeah, a lot has and has not changed in a year. So this has been like really interesting. So yeah, thank you for your time too.