Why these vaccine-hesitant Indigenous women in N.W.T. decided to get the jab
CBC
When the COVID-19 vaccine was made available in the North, Jessica Deleary wasn't sure she was going to get it.
"I was kind of hesitant, just because of the speed with which it was created," said the resident of Dettah, a First Nations community just outside Yellowknife. "[W]e don't know exactly what's inside [it] and we don't know what's going to happen, what the long-term side effects are. And those were real, real concerns for me, especially because I was expecting."
The mother of five asked several doctors if the vaccine was safe for her while she was pregnant. Some told her yes, while others said it might be a good idea for her to stick with her gut feeling and wait.
Deleary was also concerned about how the vaccine was pushed on small, Indigenous N.W.T. communities.
"Historically speaking in Canada, there was a lot of experiments on Indigenous communities and Indigenous children. And so to me, the way that it was pushed on small, N.W.T. Indigenous communities was kind of also worrisome," she said.
After talking it out with her partner, who was also vaccine-hesitant, she decided to get the Moderna vaccine on Sept. 9, about two weeks after she delivered her fifth child.
What tipped the scales for her?
