Senior citizens remain cautious as vaccine rollout progresses

PHOTO: Christie Wyman receives her first Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Yolo County’s health department parking lot.

By Shira Kalish,

BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

As more and more senior citizens receive their COVID-19 vaccines, many remain cautious of resuming a non-distant life while the vaccination process is only just beginning.

According to Yolo County public information officer Jenny Tan, it is now the second week of vaccinating citizens 65 and older. They are also vaccinating healthcare workers.

“Thousands have been vaccinated already, with more being vaccinated in the coming weeks,” Tan said.

According to Jaime Ordonez, health program manager for the Yolo County Health and Human Service Agency (HHSA), both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 95 percent effective at immunizing people from the effects of COVID-19. Despite its high efficiency, it is undetermined whether or not immunity prevents the spread of the virus, leaving those vaccinated wary about seeing people.

Many students continue to remain physically distant from their elderly loved ones until the effectiveness of the vaccines becomes more certain. 

Since the beginning of the pandemic, junior Elise Wyman has only visited her grandparents from a distance in the driveway or by Zoom. Her grandparents, Henry and Christie Wyman, have received their first dose of the vaccine and will get their second one in three weeks. They are paying close attention to information from the county and Center for Disease Control (CDC). 

“I feel better that there is progress being made on everybody getting their immunizations,” Henry said.

They will consider visiting with their family free of COVID-19 restrictions once their adult children get vaccinated, which they estimate will not be until June or July.

Both of junior Talon Dale’s grandparents are vaccinated. “I’m relieved [they are vaccinated] but the vaccine doesn’t 100 percent prevent [COVID-19] so we’re still staying away from there for now,” Dale said.

At the University Retirement Community (URC), most staff and residents are vaccinated. However, the same COVID-19 measures remain in place.

“Yolo county is still in the purple zone and our facility has to follow district COVID guidelines,” said senior Jessie Finkelor, who works as a food server at the center. “However, I’m hoping our dining hall will be open soon because so many people living there are vaccinated.”

All residents and staff at the center are required to get tested for COVID-19 twice per week.

Although the new vaccines are highly effective, Ordonez advises vaccinated senior citizens to continue following COVID restrictions.

“I think we’re too early in the process. We still need to be careful […] however, I don’t think the restrictions have to be as strict as they were before with the senior citizens once they are already immunized,” Ordonez said.