On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with three people who participated in an MDOT public service announcement, explaining why they received a COVID-19 vaccine and think others should, too.
First, Kim Henderson, who manages MDOT’s Graphic Design and Mapping Unit, talks about why she felt it was important, as a Black woman, to share her testimonial. She has been volunteering at Union Missionary Baptist Church in Lansing to help promote the need to get vaccinated. She also served on the Covid Help Team for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), completing daily case reports and directing calls to individuals that tested positive for Covid statewide.
Next, Aaron Jenkins, MDOT media relations representative for the University Region, comprising the counties around Lansing, Ann Arbor and Jackson, shares his reasons for getting vaccinated and being an advocate for others to do the same - from wanting to hug his grandchildren to feeling the need to be an example in the community.
Jenkins and Henderson reference the historical reasons for distrust of government and health care officials among some Black people, including the horrors of the Tuskegee Experiment.
The third guest, Melissa Greif, a financial analyst in MDOT’s Gaylord-based North Region, talks about her experience being infected with COVID-19. She details the mental and physical discomfort she experienced and how she hopes her story inspires others to pursue vaccination and avoid the same symptoms.
Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute on Unsplash. Image shows a nurse administering a COVID-19 shot.
On this week’s Talking Michigan Transportation podcast, a conversation with three people who participated in an MDOT public service announcement, explaining why they received a COVID-19 vaccine and think others should, too.
First, Kim Henderson, who manages MDOT’s Graphic Design and Mapping Unit, talks about why she felt it was important, as a Black woman, to share her testimonial. She has been volunteering at Union Missionary Baptist Church in Lansing to help promote the need to get vaccinated. She also served on the Covid Help Team for the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), completing daily case reports and directing calls to individuals that tested positive for Covid statewide.
Next, Aaron Jenkins, MDOT media relations representative for the University Region, comprising the counties around Lansing, Ann Arbor and Jackson, shares his reasons for getting vaccinated and being an advocate for others to do the same - from wanting to hug his grandchildren to feeling the need to be an example in the community.
Jenkins and Henderson reference the historical reasons for distrust of government and health care officials among some Black people, including the horrors of the Tuskegee Experiment.
The third guest, Melissa Greif, a financial analyst in MDOT’s Gaylord-based North Region, talks about her experience being infected with COVID-19. She details the mental and physical discomfort she experienced and how she hopes her story inspires others to pursue vaccination and avoid the same symptoms.
Photo courtesy of the National Cancer Institute on Unsplash. Image shows a nurse administering a COVID-19 shot.
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Jeff Cranson: Hello, this is the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast. I'm Jeff Cranson, director of communications at the Michigan Department of Transportation.
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Cranson: This week I’m trying something a little different. Some MDOT employees across the state participated in what we called Why I Got my Shot video explaining why they decided to get a COVID-19 vaccine and why others should, too. So, I’m talking with three of the people who participated and listening to them talk a little bit about each of their decisions. First, I'll be speaking with Kim Henderson, supervisor of MDOT’s Mapping and Graphic Arts Unit. Then I’ll talk to Aaron Jenkins, a media relations representative from MDOT’s University Region, comprising the counties around Lansing, Ann Arbor and Jackson. Lastly, Melissa Greif, the financial analyst for MDOT’s North Region based in Gaylord. Kim, thank you for taking time to do this. Could you just talk a little bit about your reasons for wanting to share your message about getting a vaccine and why you think others should, too?
Kim Henderson: Sure, so I’ve been fully vaccinated for about a month now. My first shot was back in March. My second shot was April 2, and the first reason why I wanted to get this done was because I want to protect myself and my family from COVID. I’ve had two uncles pass away last year from getting COVID-19. It's a horrible, horrible virus, and I just did not want to take a chance of getting sick or getting ill. I do lots of, you know, community service work. My daughter is a high school senior at East Lansing High School, so I’m constantly at the high school helping with soccer, helping with marching band. So, I’m exposed large groups of people, so if I could do anything to help them not get that virus that would be great. But, also, I want to set an example for the Black community at large. There's a distrust in government, a distrust in doctors, and Black people from the past histories of world war II and such. So, I wanted to be a good example. I just wanted to make sure that people knew that, no, if I can get it, you can get it. And that's the best thing to do is to get it so you have less chance of catching COVID-19.
Cranson: Well, and I think that was the compelling point that you made in the video, and I think that's why it was an appropriate ending to the to the project. But have you heard that, I mean especially from older friends and relatives, that's been passed on through generations because of the Tuskegee experiment and other things that there is still that distrust of science and of, you know, medicine overall?
Henderson: Absolutely. Actually, when I got my shot, I took my aunt with me because she does not believe in getting flu shots or getting vaccines for anything either, so I made her go with me to get her shot. I literally picked her up and took her with me. And this person has diabetes, so she's already super high risk. She's 75 years old. In order for her to get her shot I had to get my shot, so there's a big distrust still. So, I’ve been trying to work with local churches in Lansing and Reverend Jones at Union Baptist Church to try to help him and other people in the community to get older people out there to get their vaccinations. He actually held a vaccination clinic in April, mid-April, at the church.
Cranson: That's great. So, talk about those two uncles. Were they in the Lansing area?
Henderson: No, they were from Detroit. I’m originally from Detroit. I’ve been living in East Lansing since ’84, but I’m from Detroit, went to Detroit public schools and everything. So, they were both Detroit. One of them was at a church gathering when they shouldn’t have been gathering, but sometimes people in the community don't listen to the governor's recommendations of not getting together because they think they're safe because they're at church. And he caught it literally from someone else that had COVID even though they were masked up. It was a small gathering. I think it was maybe 30 people at the church service. And out of that church, four people have passed away from it including him.
Cranson: Wow.
Henderson: And then my other uncle was elderly. He was in a nursing home, but he was very elderly and very sick from other ailments and so he passed away. But his wasn't as much COVID. He caught COVID and that was it, but he had other illness going on. But my other uncle who was younger, who was like in his mid-70’s, he was a healthy person, in shape, and COVID just took him out. That's one of the reasons why I wanted to join the COVID help team with the Department of Health and Human Services when they were looking for volunteers was because after my uncle died, I was like, ‘Oh my God. I got to do something to help. I can't let people keep, you know, just not understanding what this is, what the virus is about and everything.’ So—
Cranson: Yeah, no, and that's your work and volunteer work and willingness to represent MDOT on that team, you know, is great. I think it's something that you really embraced and, you know, you feel like it feels satisfying.
Henderson: Well, you know, the thing about being on that team—I’ll just tell you this because we had to go through some training at John Hopkins, you know, before you could be on the team, so you can really understand how viruses work. I’m not a physician or a doctor or anything like that, but I’m telling you the background information that you receive from that it really will push you to get vaccinated as soon as you can get it. But I knew that I would be calling people in inner cities. I knew I was going to be calling people in flint in Saginaw, Detroit, probably Ann Arbor, also Great Rapids, and I knew the majority of those calls would be to minority people. So, I know that my voice because I’m a Black person, and you can tell I’m Black for my voice, that people would be a little bit at ease speaking to me. They would ask me questions, I’ll be able to give them proper information and direct them accordingly to where to go for help as well to try to talk them into getting vaccinated because, you know, you trust the people that you know. You have more trust and people who are like you, so I knew that I had to do that work with DHHS to help push this and push people to get back vaccinated as soon as possible once they were eligible.
Cranson: You couldn't say that too many times. I think that's very true that people want to identify with the person that's, you know, talking to them, that's asking them to do something and being able to do that makes a huge difference. So, thanks again for doing that for the state and for friends and relatives everywhere, and for participating in our video project, which I think was really good and hopefully will have an impact. I know you'll be doing more of this, so I appreciate it.
Henderson: Of course, that's what we do as civil servants. We try to serve the public to the best of our abilities, and I take that seriously.
Cranson: Yeah, very well said. And, as promised, our second guest participant from the Got my Shot video is Aaron Jenkins, who is MDOT's media relations representative for the University Region. Aaron had some very sincere things to say about why he got his shot—first and foremost because he wanted to hug his grandchildren. Could you talk a little bit more about that, Aaron, and why you thought it was important to get this message out?
Aaron Jenkins: I feel like, personally, there's a lot of responsibility for me to get the vaccine. I really need to be an example for my family. I find, from the people that I’ve talked to and what I’ve seen, personally, that there's not a lot of trust among African Americans when it comes to getting vaccines. So, I got my vaccine as soon as I could and, you know, when I was in the military there were so many different vaccines that we had to that we had to receive, you know, from anthrax on down. And I don't feel like there's any kind of malintent with this vaccine for anyone.
Cranson: Well, that's interesting that you say that because, as you've probably heard and read, compliance within the military is not very high.
Jenkins: That's very true, and that's today's military versus yesterday's. One of the big problems that I always—and I was lucky never to have happen, you know, is when you tell someone to do something in the military you need to get it done, you know, especially depending on what's going on. When you need to take a hill you don't need to have someone say, 'Hey, Sgt., why?’ It has to be done, so it was a totally—in the seven years since I’ve been out there's been a lot of changes. And I can see that with my son, you know. My son has the longer hair than I’ve ever had in my life, and he's in the military right now. There have been a few changes.
Cranson: Thinking back to that time and the willingness to get various vaccines including—you specifically mentioned anthrax, was that just a different era? Were people still skeptical or was it just like everything now, just suspicion of everything?
Jenkins: Well, there were people that were hesitant, but you knew that if you did not get that vaccine then your career was going to be over. So, yeah, again, I say it's a different time and, you know, with social media and everything going right now there is so much misinformation. It presents a daily battle, you know. People are getting their information from social media. They’re not talking to their doctors. They're not talking to medical professionals, and you're always going to get a bad answer going that way.
Cranson: You jumped on this right away. The people, you know, that were told about this project you, right away, recorded something and, like I said, specifically mentioned grandchildren and the need to be an example. I guess, what's your hope that you're just, you know, little kind of capsule of a testimonial could do and, you know, what inspiration it could bring to others?
Jenkins: Just like everyone else, I understand the whole historical hesitation. Everybody knows about Tuskegee; everybody knows about Henrietta Lacks. But, again, this is a different time, this is a different era. We're trying to help America get back into business, you know, to be healthy. We've lost way too many people because of this horrible pandemic. We need to do what we can to just do our part so that we're not part of the problem, so we're part of the solution.
Cranson: You want to talk about, you know, how it's touched you personally?
Jenkins: Everybody that I know, they've had a family member that have died from this. My son, he's in the navy, and I mentioned that earlier. He's been in for seven years now and he had COVID. He luckily, you know, he's in great shape. He's in the military, and it didn't affect him as bad as other people. But one of the one of the ladies that I worked with at DNR, her husband got COVID and unfortunately, he passed away within 10 days of getting it. So, you know, it's out there; it's real. If you haven't experienced it yourself, well, you're lucky and thank God that you haven't. But once it happens to a family member, once it happens to you, you'll understand how real it is and how serious it is and how serious we need to be to combat this pandemic.
Cranson: Yeah, amen. Well, thank you, Aaron. Thanks both for your very good and honest participation in the video and for talking with us for a few minutes about this. I’m hoping that this is just another way to put a spotlight on the project that we produced.
Jenkins: All right. Well, thank you so much for having me on your show. I really appreciate it.
Cranson: So, lastly, as promised, we're with Melissa Greif, who is a financial analyst for MDOT's North Region and shared a very personal story about her own experience with COVID-19 on the video. I wanted her to expand a little bit about what she said and why she, you know, participated in this project and the good that she thinks could come out of it. So, thank you, Melissa.
Melissa Greif: You're welcome.
Cranson: You want to talk a little bit about your own story?
Greif: Yeah, so, I had COVID back in November. And I was one of those people that, you know, got to work at home and my husband did the grocery shopping, so I wasn't really going out or any of that good stuff. But unfortunately, my brother-in-law and a couple friends brought it to us in our home. So, when people say if you're worried about it or scared don't go out, well, I didn't go out, but I still got it. So, that's my experience with it is that, you know, I was good about wearing my mask and all that good stuff, but it was when I let a family member in my house that maybe wasn't taking it as serious as me and that's when we got it.
Cranson: After that experience are some of those people taking it more seriously now?
Greif: Yeah, so, I feel like they kind of, you know, were taking it seriously, but they were also like going out to restaurants and hanging out with more friends where we weren't doing that. So, like my brother-in-law was the type—his turned into pneumonia and he was the one that gave it to us, and so he kind of felt like he didn't even deserve to go to the hospital because he wasn't taking as serious as he should have. So, you know, obviously, he eventually had to go because of his symptoms. But, yeah, I think they're definitely believers now after the three of them experiencing it and then passing it on to us, and it does definitely spread fast that's for sure.
Cranson: Yeah, the whole idea behind this video and these testimonials, obviously, was to help maybe compel some folks who are still hesitant or even deniers. Do you find that, you know, talking to people, not preaching at them but just sharing your experience, does have some breakthroughs?
Greif: I think so. I think there's definitely so much information out there and people don't know what to believe and so it's scary. All I can say is that, you know, I kind of feel like I still have antibodies in my system because we're going on six months here since I had it, so I was kind of in that like do I really need to get it, I’m probably still fine. But I think a lot of us do want to travel or we want to go see family members that we haven't got to see in person in a while, and I think they feel more comfortable knowing that you say, like, ‘I got my vaccine.’ So, I think definitely I was on the edge, like, do I really need to do this? But then after having it and my symptoms weren't that bad, like, you get a little tired and achy and then the next day I kind of woke up and felt like myself. That day or two where people might not feel good after the vaccine, I can tell you personally it's not as bad as having true COVID symptoms for two to three weeks, you know, sometimes they last longer.
Cranson: Yeah, I think me, and the members of my family were fortunate that we didn't really have any side effects beyond the sore arm which you get, you know, from other vaccines but, certainly, some people have. Have you known a lot of people that had serious reactions?
Greif: Most of them just feel like it made them really tired, you know, and when I had COVID I was tired. So, they always said, like, I imagine this is how you felt but you felt like this for two to three weeks versus me just feeling really bad for a day and a half, you know. So, I definitely do think most people just are tired and have a sore arm is like the worst of it, but, yeah, mine wasn't too bad. It was real mild, and I just had some crazy symptoms. That's why I said that in my video is that I had the symptoms and I don't really want them again and I believe it because—so, James Lake had asked me to do this video, our communication rep, and I told him a funny story is the brain fog was horrible to me. That was the worst part and I work with numbers, you know, I can't afford to make mistakes. Luckily, I got mine after I made it through year-end because I was super busy and my brain was just not functioning how it's worked for all these years. I was telling a story to my husband and daughter and I was trying to say the word ‘outlawed,’ and I looked at him and I said the sentence and when I tried to say that I kept going ‘out loud.’ Then I looked at him and I was like talking kind of fast, so I thought ‘okay, I’ll slow it down.’ So, I’m like ‘out loud, out loud,’ you know. I could not say ‘outlawed’ and now I can say it, but it's the strangest thing. Things like that kept happening to me where my brain just was not working the way I knew it could work, and—
Cranson: So, interesting, you know, you feel like you've made a full recovery but that specific thing, that kind of cognitive function is something that's been associated with long COVID people.
Greif: Yeah, and I lucked out that we were coming up on Christmas break and everything. So, you know, now that we're working at home, I feel like you hear your computer ding you go check it. You don't always maybe just work your normal scheduled hours. You're checking things later in the evening and stuff, and I told my boss I’m like, you know, I was doing two regions at the time, filling in for Bay Region, just got over year end, got COVID, I was like, ‘I’m not going to check my emails on my break. I think I need to rest and, you know, I’m starting to feel better but it's still kind of lingering.’ Once I came back from that Christmas break, I felt like I was myself again, but, yeah, that part was hanging on. It’s just things you could do for years I couldn't necessarily do them. That's why I joked I was making a video to share with everyone that said I got my COVID vaccine so I could say the word ‘outlawed’ because now I can say it no problem, but I could not say it for weeks, every time I tried it came out ‘out loud.’
Cranson: That's funny. Well, I can't thank you enough for participating in the video and for doing this. I think it's important. Obviously, you live in an area where there's been more hesitancy and where healthcare officials have worked really hard to try to educate people on the need to get vaccinated and the numbers still aren't where we'd like to see them, so every little bit helps. I think your testimonial is a great thing.
Greif: Yeah, no problem. Yeah, I mean, not everyone knows I had COVID, but I’m not ashamed to say it, you know, like, obviously it spreads fast. I got it just at my own house, but I still wear my mask. I still, you know, use my hand sanitizer and I work from home and I try to limit, you know, exposure when I can. But, yeah, when the vaccine finally was available for my age group and all that I definitely got signed up. I’m happy to say I received my second vaccine a week ago, Wednesday, so—
Cranson: Oh, good for you.
Greif: Glad to have it.
Cranson: Yeah, so, you're pretty close to being fully vaccinated.
Greif: Yeah, but my video just said I didn't want the symptoms again, but there's a number of things, you know, like we had a new niece born last May. She just turned one and those are things, like we couldn't hold our niece until we felt like we weren't able to give it to somebody else or, you know, I mean, obviously, it's been six months. We probably still have antibodies, but that was always in the back your mind, like you don't want to hold someone's new child and get them sick or something like that. And my father-in-law was diagnosed with cancer this year, so I still haven't got to hug him in over a year. I finally got to go see my grandma. She's in an assisted living care, and I finally got to hug her for the first time this Saturday.
Cranson: Oh, that's nice, yeah.
Greif: All those reasons we're just piling up for why I should get my vaccine. Yeah, I can speak for having COVID and the lingering symptoms versus the short period of time where I felt a little tired and achy after my vaccine. It was definitely worth it to get the vaccine if it can help you not get true COVID and be sick for that amount of time.
Cranson: Very well said.
Cranson: Thank you again for listening to this week's edition of the Talking Michigan Transportation podcast. I would like to thank Randy Debler and Corey Petee for engineering this week's podcast. To subscribe to show notes and more, go to Apple podcasts and search for Talking Michigan Transportation.