This is a podcast/audio story. Listen to “Outbreak Alabama: Stories from a Pandemic,” above.
Today we hear from my colleague Lawrence Specker, an AL.com reporter based in the Mobile area.
Lawrence and his wife Melissa recently tested positive for COVID. Both fully vaccinated, they are two examples of breakthrough cases in Alabama.
Yes, you can get COVID even when you’re fully vaccinated. The vaccines are not 100 percent effective in preventing you from being infected. But experts say the vaccine will protect you from severe illness and death. And the overwhelming majority of Alabamians hospitalized or dying from COVID are unvaccinated.
I spoke to Lawrence Specker about when he learned he was infected, what symptoms he had with his breakthrough case, why he no longer feels bulletproof even though he’s vaccinated and how his perspective on the virus has changed since contracting it. He also recently wrote about his experience with the virus.
On having no regrets protecting himself from COVID:
“One interesting response I’ve had to the column I wrote is there’s been a small fraction of responses where people said, ‘Well don’t you feel stupid now? You got the vaccine and it didn’t work. All that masking up, all that locking down. It was all stupid. Do you feel stupid for going along with all that?’ My answer would be absolutely not. It has been a foray for us as a society and as a species. It’s been a foray into the unknown. And yeah, if we had the advantage of knowing everything we know now at the beginning of 2020, we might have done things differently. But I feel good about everything we did -- meaning mask mandates, lockdowns, the push to get people vaccinated. By and large, the steps recommended by the medical establishment were good advice based on what we knew at the time. So I don’t feel like having had COVID doesn’t make me feel at all like it was foolish to wear masks, to get the vaccine, that we locked down as best we could for as long as we could. We were doing the prudent things based on what we knew at the time, and some day we’ll understand everything about this. But that day isn’t here yet.”
On the vaccine’s political divide:
“As we look back, there’s definitely been a political side to the question of whether people get vaccinated, whether they wear masks, whether they lock down, and so on. But there’s also been this dynamic of people wanting be on the absolutely virtuous side of things. Either you’re scoffing at the people who disagree with you because they’re sheep who take an untested vaccine and do whatever the government tells you to, or you scoff at the people who don’t agree with you because they are making a scientific decision based on ideology and exposing everybody else to danger because they don’t get that this is about a virus and not about your thoughts on liberty. You can do everything ‘wrong’ and not get COVID. You can do everything ‘right’ and get COVID. I think it’s prudent to mask up for your and other people’s protection depending on the circumstances. I think it’s prudent to get the vaccine and trust the guidance we get from medical professionals. I think when a contagion is spreading through the populace, I think it’s reasonable for the government to be the mechanism that tells us we need to lock down. There need to be things we can do and can’t do. But I don’t get to go around saying ‘neiner neiner’ to anybody who disagrees with me. We’re all using our judgment to try to get through this thing.”
If you or anyone you know is affected by COVID and want to share your story, please email bflanagan@al.com. For all of our coverage on the outbreak and how it continues to impact Alabama, visit AL.com/coronavirus.
If you like the show, please rate us and write a review. Thank you for listening.
More ‘Outbreak Alabama’
How the Delta variant and COVID misinformation are harming our state
College football’s ‘personal decision’ on vaccines
How Key Ivey can convince Alabama to get vaccinated
Here’s why our COVID numbers are so bad again
Dr. Michael Saag answers the big COVID questions
Journalists reflect on a year of covering COVID