{"id":14517,"date":"2021-08-26T15:01:01","date_gmt":"2021-08-26T19:01:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=14517"},"modified":"2021-08-26T15:01:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T19:01:11","slug":"as-a-risk-manager-i-said-yes-to-the-vaccine-grady-judd-sheriff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2021\/08\/26\/as-a-risk-manager-i-said-yes-to-the-vaccine-grady-judd-sheriff\/","title":{"rendered":"“As a risk manager, I said yes to the vaccine.” – Grady Judd, Sheriff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Grady Judd, Polk County Sheriff<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I keep getting asked if I\u2019ve gotten the COVID-19 vaccination. I tell them it was an easy decision for me: yes. The moment I was eligible, I got the Moderna vaccine. The available data I had access to\u2014that we all have access to\u2014makes it clear to me that getting the vaccine is a smart risk management decision.

The decision to get the vaccine is an individual, personal decision. I don\u2019t believe anyone should be forced to get the vaccine. I think people who have concerns about it should consult their physician and follow their advice.\u00a0

For me, I looked at the available data and I\u2019ve seen our experience with Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office agency members related to COVID-19 vaccines. Not one of the hundreds of our members who have received the vaccine has had a seriously negative reaction. Not one. We\u2019ve had a few who\u2019ve had an allergic response and have been unable to get a second dose, but no one has become seriously ill.

Sadly, we have had non-vaccinated members become infected with the virus and become seriously ill, and required hospitalization. One of my deputies, tragically, has died of COVID-19. We have had a few PCSO members who got the vaccine and contracted the Delta variant\u2014each of these few cases resulted in minor illness and no hospitalizations.

Lately, COVID-19 infections have resulted in increased serious illness and hospitalizations\u2014the overwhelming majority of those didn\u2019t get the vaccine\u201495%-99% were unvaccinated. According to medical experts I trust, nearly every death due to COVID-19 is now entirely preventable if you get vaccinated.

As a risk manager, not a medical expert, those numbers make it clear to me that getting the vaccine, for those who are medically cleared to get them, makes sense.

Over a recent three-week period, I\u2019ve been directly exposed to four unvaccinated people (that I know of) who were diagnosed with COVID-19 (one of whom died) soon after I interacted with them. I\u2019ve had no symptoms and no infections. Anecdotally, that makes me feel good about my decision.\u00a0

I will say that messaging about the COVID-19 from some of those in government, including some politicians, has been poor and inconsistent. The politicization of the vaccine, face masks, and the virus itself is a sad commentary about the politicization of just about everything going on in modern American life.\u00a0

Some people are skeptical of the federal government and they don\u2019t trust what\u2019s being said by those in authority. Some people worry about the long-term consequences of vaccines. And it\u2019s true that the vaccines did not go through the \u201cregular process,\u201d but it\u2019s also true that multiple clinical studies have looked at the vaccines, and so far, they have been shown to be safe and effective. And now, the Food and Drug Administration has granted full approval to the Pfizer vaccine.\u00a0

If there is some negative outcome in future years related to the vaccine, that\u2019s a risk I\u2019ve considered, and compared to the real-life, current negative consequences of not getting the vaccine, including death, I\u2019m comfortable with my decision.\u00a0

As you weigh the evidence of whether to get the vaccine, I ask that you consider not only your best interest, but also that of your family and friends who love you and need you healthy and in their lives.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I keep getting asked if I\u2019ve gotten the COVID-19 vaccination. I tell them it was an easy decision for me: yes. The moment I was eligible, I got the Moderna… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[23],"tags":[1082],"class_list":["post-14517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sheriffs-corner","tag-as-a-risk-manager"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14517\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}