March 3, 2021 Share Ally Dever lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, and hasn’t seen her parents since November 2019. Like so many Americans, she wants to be reunited with family, but is not willing to take the risk of getting them sick during the continuing COVID-19 pandemic. Her mother is 77 and her father is 87, living more than 1,100 kilometers away in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “I just want to be able to hug my mom,” she told VOA. “I miss her.” Last month, Dever got a giant step closer to having that wish come true. Because she’s a mental health professional, she received both doses of a coronavirus vaccine. As a result, her chance of being infected with COVID-19 — or passing it on to those around her — is believed to be drastically reduced.