This story was told by a person incarcerated at Elmwood Correctional Facility.
UCI: Okay. What has the COVID situation been like at your facility?
Caller: Well it’s – there’s so much people that are in quarantine right now there’s not any room. Like for quarantine; me personally in our dorm, like, I think maybe two people have got COVID and half the people here are vaccinated and half the people are not.
Because there’s a big whole issue about getting vaccinated that we have here. Because there’s correctional officers they, we asked them, “Are you vaccinated?” and they said “No,” and “Are you going to get vaccinated?,” “No.” So, and our side, we say “Well, okay, if they are not willing to get vaccinated, you know, then why would they ask us to do something they are not willing to do themselves?”
There’s reasons for that. I don’t know the reason but, me personally, I’m not – I’m not vaccinated. But I do everyday, I worry, like, I get tested once a week, you know, because they say it’s getting worse and people are getting sick. And I’m not vaccinated and, you know, that’s one thing that worries me and my family because me getting sick or, you know, even my kids, you know, and what happens with them with the vaccination.
And I read in the paper that there is, you know, they are giving the kids the vaccination and they gave them the wrong shot I mean there is so many negative things that I hear more than positive about the vaccination. You know? Everybody keeps trying to telling us, pushing us to get the vaccination.
But I’m not going to do it. I mean, I don’t know how everybody else feels but that’s my own personal story.
And I’m pretty sure everybody else here would agree but, like, during the pandemic, like, I didn’t really understand what was going on but, you know, I got laid off because of it and two times. And at first didn’t think it was that serious but then I saw, I had family members that died already from the pandemic.
So I know it’s serious but at the same time I know it’s not a good thing that the shot whatever they give you the shot some people get sick. I don’t know there are so many things I hear negatively so I’m not going to get the shot. You know?
So I don’t know, you know, how many people you have spoken to that are here incarcerated and what they tell you about the shot. Even comes out over here in the paper in our county, you know, that there’s a lot of government officials, there’s a lot of prison staff here, they’re not vaccinated so what they’re doing is they’re charging them, I think, 100 dollars or 200 dollars a month for not taking the shot.
So and they expect us to get the shot and we’re not. We’re not going to take it. I don’t know. I don’t really know where to start but my story from now, but there’s too many. I mean I’m pretty sure if you asked more questions I could have more answers for you.
