After three complicated pregnancies, it’s been hard for WCCO host Sheletta Brundidge to trust the medical professionals she said ignored her complaints in the hospital.
She’d been hesitant to get the vaccine, that is, until last week.
Brundidge’s now 15-year-old son Andrew told his mom that when he blew out his candles, he’d be wishing for her to get vaccinated.
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The teenager is the oldest of her three children. Her younger two children have autism, and Andrew worried his mom was unprotected against a virus that could kill her and leave them orphaned.
“Andrew told me, ‘Mom, no one is going to care for me and my autistic siblings like you will,’” Brundidge told USA Today. “So I knew I had to ease his anxiety about that. I couldn’t add to his worries mentally.”
Brundidge, host of WCCO programs and her own “Sheletta Makes Me Laugh” podcast, received her first vaccination Friday afternoon in Minnesota alongside Gov. Tim Walz. They hope the exposure encourages other vaccine-hesitant people to reconsider.
15-year-old Andrew said his studies of the coronavirus left him concerned about the “scary” odds for COVID-19 in the Black community.
“I didn’t want my mom to be another statistic,” Andrew said to USA Today. “I told her, ‘Who’s going to take care of us if something happens to you?’”
Although she was still nervous, Brundidge felt it was necessary. She hoped to set an excellent example for her children and her community in the process.
“Do it scared. Get vaccinated scared like me,” she said. “It’s worth it, in the end, to send a positive message and be protected.”
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