A VACCINE CLOSE TO HOME

WRITTEN BY SARAH NEESE, PHOTOS BY KT KING

WITH MORE THAN A THIRD OF OKLAHOMANS having received the COVID-19 vaccine, many residents are experiencing a sense of relief as vulnerable loved ones are gaining protection from a virus that rapidly swept through the globe.

As a current medical worker and senior nursing student at Central, Link Zheng is one of many feeling a renewed sense of hope brought on by the vaccine. Working as a nurse technician during the pandemic meant Zheng occasionally took care of COVID-19 patients when there were shortages of nursing staff.

“I could not go back home to visit, because I was afraid of inadvertently bringing home the virus to my parents and grandmother,” Zheng said, though he lives just 15 minutes from his family.

While Zheng received his first dose of the vaccine in December, he still feared for the safety of his parents and grandparents, specifically his dad, who works in the food service industry.

“My dad never went to college; I am the first in the family to go off to college and get degrees,” he said.

“He works at a restaurant, and though he is not familiar with college, he supports me whenever he can.”

During the spring semester, the UCO Department of Nursing partnered with Passport Health to offer vaccine clinics for Central faculty, staff and community members. The clinics were staffed by

UCO nursing students, including Zheng, under the supervision of nursing faculty.

“One moment, I was taking care of COVID-19 patients, and in a blink, I was administering the COVID-19 vaccine to members of the community,” Zheng said.

Admittedly, Zheng was nervous to administer the vaccine, but pushing nervousness aside, he recalled an overall sense of something bigger and more important.

“Before the vaccine, the only shots I did were for insulin during clinicals and maybe a finger stick at most. After a while, I quickly learned and got over the nervousness, because [patients] were nervous, and that was before factoring in needles,” he said. “Nervousness aside, it felt surreal to be witnessing and being a part of history.”

However, that history became more meaningful when a special patient sat down in his chair to get the vaccine – his dad.

“I was more nervous than previous times, from fear of messing up,” Zheng said. “It was like those moments where you do something a thousand times, but in this particular instance, you [think you] will mess up. Luckily, I did not.”

Once the vaccine was administered, Zheng walked his dad to the waiting area and sat down to wait with him, a sense of calm falling over the pair.

“I felt a sense of relief to see my dad get the protection he needs,” he said. “It means so much to me – someone who worked with COVID-19 patients and saw how much suffering there was.”

Having made it through a global pandemic, Zheng still has his sights on continuing to serve the community through medicine. Set to graduate in December 2021, he hopes to work in an emergency room where he can spend more time with patients.

As of this issue’s publishing, more than 850 faculty and staff and nearly 2,000 students had self-reported receiving the vaccine.