Providence plans to shutter the labs March 18. Health care workers said they were concerned this could add delays for patient care and further the scarcity of service locally.
It s rare that our personal health decisions are so public or that we re so constantly confronted with their communitywide ramifications. It s also rare that a newspaper reporter s life is so unavoidably intertwined with the subject they re covering.
But we live in unprecedented times, so on the morning of April 23, I dropped my daughter off at school, where she s recently resumed in-person instruction, and later got my second dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccination. Later that day, I wrote a story for the
Journal s website about our steadily spiking COVID-19 case numbers. Then, I spent the weekend researching Humboldt County vaccination efforts and the topic of vaccine hesitancy, which led to two very illuminating conversations with two very informed local doctors. (One of the huge perks of being a reporter is getting paid to talk to smart, passionate experts and about important stuff.)