BOISE, Idaho — It's been almost one year since a Rexburg doctor received the first COVID-19 vaccine in Idaho, and the gem state got its first distribution of the vaccine, but what has that meant for our community since then?
“The hardest thing to relay was how long it felt like it was coming,” said St. Luke's senior director of pharmacy Scott Milner.
He was among the first group of Idaho healthcare workers to get the vaccine.
He told KTVB getting the vaccine, felt like it was the first time in the pandemic when health care workers like himself could do something.
“Most of that year it felt like we had to sit and wait, we had to quarantine, we had to mask, we couldn’t go to these venues or concerts, there was more or less what we couldn’t do oppose to what we could do,” Milner said.
When he finally got the vaccine, he says there were mixed emotions because he had already had friends or loved ones who had suffered from the coronavirus.
“Part of me felt guilty that I was having my chance,” Milner said.
While there was high demand for the vaccine in the beginning. The demand has since slowed down. Milner now views a lot of what has happened with the COVID-19 pandemic compared to what happened after 9/11.
“I was inspired with how people rallied behind things like the music, the concerts, the blood donations, it felt like we had a common enemy,” Milner said. “But then when you look at COVID it felt like at first when we went into lockdown people were starting to believe that we did this together, but then as 2020 went on and even this year, it became more political.”
He adds it's hard to see a trusted profession become less trusted over time.
Instead, he says people are now putting their trust into chat boards, and rumors they see on social media. So where do we stand in comparison to a year ago?
“For us coming off of the emergency standards of care, I hope more and more people unfortunately, know somebody who had COVID or had a bad case of what it caused them and maybe we've changed our opinion a little bit. I’m not a fan of forcing anyone to get the vaccine or do anything against their will, but I am a fan of educating and those who are vaccinated are not 100% free because variants can still pass through, but I think we are better protected,” Milner said.
As of Wednesday, the state of Idaho says just over half of Idaho's population has been vaccinated for COVID-19.
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