Lucia Starbuck is a reporter with KUNR and a corps member with Report for America. As an essential worker, Lucia received her first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this week. She shares her experience at a drive-through vaccination site and what this moment meant to her in an audio diary.
I'm heading in to get my vaccine. I'm super excited, a little nervous.
[Lucia drives into the Reno-Sparks Livestock Events Center parking lot and sees a sign that instructs drivers to turn on the radio. A recorded message plays and says, “follow all commands and instructions from our staff and the National Guard when approaching the vaccination bay.”]
[After an initial checkpoint, a vaccine administrator greets her and administers the Pfizer COVID-19 shot in her arm through her car window. She is then instructed to wait 15 minutes in the parking lot.]
The last year for me has been kind of a whirlwind. I graduated in spring, and then I essentially switched to covering the pandemic [full-time].
I still am out and about in the community. The first time I left my house was for a reopen protest in Carson City. I spent my summer at BLM protests, [and] with the recent election, I was consistently covering Donald Trump rallies.
I’ve really been outside and in unsafe spaces, and just been essentially terrified anytime I come into contact with folks not wearing masks. I don’t want to bring COVID home to my family.
I feel like I want to shout it from the rooftops that I got my first shot.
You can read all of Lucia’s reporting on the pandemic and other community issues here.
Lucia Starbuck is a corps member with Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project.
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