JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Like so many people hospitalized with COVID-19 in recent weeks, Duval County Property Appraiser Jerry Holland said he wishes he’d gotten the vaccine.
Holland and his wife were both admitted to Mayo Clinic with the virus. He was released over the weekend but his wife, Beverly, is still hospitalized.
Jerry Holland told News4Jax on Monday that he thought he was healthy enough and was not really worried about contracting coronavirus and decided not to get vaccinated because of a reaction his sister had to the shot. Holland said he thought he was being safe and was socially distancing at work. Then an employee came to work sick.
“I think our office will become an incubator within four minutes,” he said. “The next day, I had a tickle in my throat and it just kept progressing from there. This thing is very contagious.”
He said others in his office got sick but he was the only one hospitalized.
“I started taking over-the-counter things and immune stuff and trying to treat it. And then I contacted my primary care, did some myosin steroids and we worked on that for a week and they gave me an oxygen meter to meter that,” he said. “When it started falling into the 80s, he said you got to go and you got to go to the hospital now.”
That was last Monday. He spent several days at Mayo and said his wife is still there, but she’s improving.
Holland said his 39-year-old son also tested positive for the virus but is recovering at home.
Holland said when he can, he will get the vaccine as he does not want to go through this again.
“It’s a tool in the toolbox you’ve got to consider,” Holland said. “Talk to your physician and do what is best for you and your family.”
As of Friday, the city of Jacksonville said 17 city employees had tested positive.
“We continue to encourage our employees to get the vaccine. Data shows that nearly all of those in need of treatment at our local hospitals are unvaccinated. The vaccine is the best tool we have to fight COVID-19,” Mayor Lenny Curry’s office said in an email.
In a news conference last this week, Curry said he did not intend to order a mask mandate in city offices.
“I’m not discouraging wearing masks if people want to wear masks, businesses want to require it, they should do that, and people should honor and respect that,” Curry said “If people get vaccinated, we won’t be in this situation.”
Newby agrees with the mayor. He was hospitalized with COVID-19 last year and wants his colleagues to take it seriously.
“I sent an email out Thursday, encouraging everyone on the City Council to get vaccinated, and to wear the mask while they’re in the hallways, and then City Council,” Newby said. “I mean, you know, I can’t mandate, but I encourage it.”
Some major employers and small businesses have required masks for employees.