GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) — Several people impacted by COVID-19 shared their stories during a Wednesday press briefing hosted by Brown County Public Health.
Speaking was a fully-vaccinated woman who spread the virus to her family members over Thanksgiving. Meagan Roberts and her fiancé went to the gathering despite her husband having what they thought was just a slight head cold.
“While we had been very careful throughout the pandemic; we’re both vaccinated we stand careful with family and friends and all of that, I do think we definitely let our guard down a little bit,” Roberts said.
She came down with symptoms a day and a half after the gathering and says around half of the attendees eventually tested positive for COVID-19.
“There’s a lot more consequences than just me being sick,” Roberts told reporters. “That was the hardest thing to deal with. It was my family, my cousins, and and the little kids who have asthma, or certain things like that. It’s just that guilt.”
Also speaking was Geri Lynn Harja, who lost her unvaccinated husband, Jim, to the virus. Harja says Jim never grew up with vaccines and didn’t trust them.
“Jim was a very strong man, and the doctors kept saying that. He had such a drive to get better,” Harja said, her voice quivering. “But obviously, he didn’t.”
Geri told reporters that her husband had expressed regret that he didn’t get vaccinated before contracting the virus.
“You know, I wish that Jim could have had more of an open mind about the vaccination piece,” said Harja. “When we left the house the night we went to the hospital, he did say I wish I would have just gotten vaccinated.”
De Pere Mayor James Boyd, who is still suffering from the aftereffects of a COVID infection from last year, also spoke.
“My chest still hurts,” Boyd, who contracted the virus early in the pandemic, said. “The lungs feel full. The trek across the parking lot and back is a chore, going up steps is a chore, so I would say it’s still hasn’t left me.”
The health department held the briefing ahead of the holiday season and encourages people to get vaccinated, wear masks indoors, and social distance.
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