In late 2020, the first COVID-19 vaccines were approved for use in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. On December 23, 2020, Jefferson County Health Department received its first allotment on Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. We were overjoyed! There was cheering and singing and a few tears of relief. Those hundred doses of vaccine felt like hope.

They felt like hope because up until then our only defense against a virus that had changed the course of our daily lives were non-pharmaceutical interventions. Hand washing, social distancing, staying home when ill and masking. During my nursing career,...