Even with rising cases and younger patients, Mr. Lejong’s death caught Dr. Johnson by surprise. It is personal and it is emotional, he said. Dr. Johnson received the Covid-19 vaccine the moment it was available to doctors because, as a physician, he understood its importance and, as an elected official, he thought it important to set an example. But he can imagine an alternate reality in which he didn’t go into medicine and let his good health and propensity for procrastination lead him to put off vaccination.
“That could have been me,” he said of Mr. Lejong.
While the number of Arkansans getting vaccinated in the last couple of weeks has risen, some say they will never be persuaded. Shanda Parish, a nurse who lives in the Fort Smith-Greenwood area, said she won’t get the shot, even after losing both her father and stepmother to the virus in recent weeks.
Robert and Vi Herring, both in their 70s, were lifelong residents of the area, married 34 years with five children between them. They didn’t like the idea of getting the vaccine, their children said. They became sick after attending a 52nd high school reunion and died within three days of each other at a Fort Smith hospital in late July.
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