“I believe people should be vaccinated if that’s the choice they want to make. I am vaccinated but it came across a little controlling.”

Brooke Vistain is a nursing student at Bellin College. She talks with Brant Vistain about her experiences during the pandemic, being required to get the vaccine, and misinformation in the health field.

Brant Vistain:

I’m with my sister Brooke who is currently a nursing student, Brooke would you like to introduce yourself quick?

Brook Vistaine:

My name is Brooke I am technically a junior in college at Bellin college in Green Bay for my nursing degree. I grew up in Winneconne with my brother and I graduated class of 2020. Its been great and its gone by fast.

So how has nursing school been for you?

So far, I really like nursing school its different from any schooling or classes I’ve taken before. Something I’ve learned a lot in nursing school that makes it different from regular schooling is that your traditional math and science seem to have a lot of definitive answers and with nursing school it’s more about thinking out of the box. There are no definitive answers you’re trying to figure out what it could be, there’s a lot of different answers and a lot of room for growth and different points and ways to think. I like it better than traditional classes, its different I really, really like it.

Is misinformation something you see and can Identify? Or is it something you can’t quite put into words?

For the most part I think something most people notice is news Fox news vs CNN or MSNBC. I think that’s very obvious to notice bias but if you don’t bring awareness to it, it’s hard to tell.

From a nursing school perspective its interesting because there are two sides to misinformation. In the health care field, a lot of data that comes out, comes out as truth and then more studies come out down the road and now that information is proven as false or not what they thought. So, in that aspect there is a lot of misinformation because stuff is changing all the time. There’s a different way I view information which is blindly trusting or a lack of education on different topics especially within the nursing field. I see it a lot and its sometimes hard to determine what is right because new stuff comes out all the time.

Do you think social media plays a role in that problem of everyone not being on the same page and thinking different things?

Yes definitely, we’ve been in a pandemic for over just two years now and there have been so many  different things that have come about what helps you with covid, what prevents you, what prevents you, what’s not for you, what’s not good for you and the media has a large part in what the vast majority of what everyone believes especially in a time of such uncertainty so id say the media has a huge roll in what people believe and who they should trust, what’s facts and what’s not.

What sources do you personally use to find correct information for yourself? If you ever have a question, what sources do you trust as a nursing student?

So, it depends on what I’m researching, pertaining to information about (covid) vaccines, there are a lot of different sides and thoughts to that information and a good resource really is the FDA or CDC. Its funny because a lot of thoughts that people have about vaccines can be found on the CDC and FDA website. They have a whole database that tells you drug facts and all this. With a lot of misinformation or information in general about very controversial medical or pharmaceutical vehicles, I go there. I also follow a lot of nutritionists who do podcasts with doctors who have been in their field for a long time, and they are very, very good with their information.

You brought up vaccines so we will go ahead and jump there because I think you’re somebody who is interesting to talk to talk to about this because you were very opinionated about the vaccine when it came out you had your questions about it and you did not get vaccinated so could you talk about that decision?

So of course, this is a very controversial topic and I think for me the biggest thing is id didn’t necessarily believe… I wanted to know more, right I wanted to be educated about it I’m all for everyone doing what they want to do but I think it’s important that everyone’s educated about it and that’s my stance. I wasn’t against the vaccine at all. I just didn’t know if it was the right choice for me and it seems to be that people did understand that this was a clinical trial that it was an experiment and I didn’t want to be a part of that experiment because I know how badly vaccines have hurt people and its not talked about but they also save lives too so it’s a very personal decision and I just wanted to be educated I wanted to weight pros and cons I wanted that for myself.

So speaking on that topic of educating yourself before you make a decision like that do you think any of the research that you may have done when the vaccines were rolled out do you think you may have encountered misinformation that made you not want to get vaccinated?

I don’t think it was misinformation, it was more a lack of information that they actually gave.

Well obviously, it’s been a while since the vaccine came out and since then you enrolled in nursing school and part of nursing school for you, was that you were required to get vaccinated so can you talk about your reaction to hearing that you would have to be vaccinated?

To be honest I felt like I was being controlled. Growing up I was always excited to go to nursing school, I can do what I want I can make my own decisions, I have that power and I felt like that was taken away from me and I think that was more frustrating than anything versus actually having to get the vaccine. I believe people should be vaccinated if that’s they choice they want to make, I am vaccinated but it came across a little controlling.

The whole thing with vaccines is I think it became way more political than it ever should have, and I think that was a big driving force for people getting the vaccine over just knowing about vaccines.

You think that the vaccines were politicized too much could you discuss that, and also do you think misinformation from the internet and media outlets played a role in that?

Yea, when I say its politicized it became a debate where if you weren’t vaccinated you were a horrible person and if you weren’t vaccinated you were responsible for the death of thousands of people across the nation your responsible for the next evolution of this virus and it became political because if you didn’t do it you were shunned from society, you were dumb, uneducated, rebellious, didn’t care about other people and that’s the way society viewed you when it should have just been a matter of your own decision and it you shouldn’t be held responsible for the death of other people because the vaccine just doesn’t work in that way.

Do you think that if the US would have waited longer to roll out the vaccine, maybe better, longer clinical studies do you think more people, yourself included would feel safer about getting vaccinated?

I actually don’t think as many people would have gotten vaccinated if they waited longer and they actually wanted to provide facts. Talking vaccines let’s talk not covid for a second. The funny thing about vaccines is they are deemed as safe they save lives and they do, they do help but this is where I’m trying to say educate yourself. All new borns get a vitamin K shot it’s required for newborns. People think all vaccines are safe but if you didn’t know there’s a black box warning on almost every single vaccine that you get, and a black box warning is say that death happens to a select few from getting this along with many other side effects death is always on that. So, when the covid vaccine came out people didn’t seem to know that while other vaccines have been safe and helpful there are still warnings about them people were almost thinking that every other vaccine is complete safe there is no issues ignoring the fact that other vaccines have issues as well.

You are bringing a lot of risk about vaccination that are legitimate concerns about the downsides of vaccination I’d like to discuss more outlandish conspiracy theory type stuff like the point of the vaccine was for bill gate was to put a microchip in your arm, and do you feel like those types of claims hurt people like you that have gripes with vaccination?

First of responding to the bill gates chip thing I don’t believe that was true

It was not.

No I don’t believe that was true I don’t believe that we are microchipped although I don’t think it hurts to think like that I think there’s a fine line between crazy conspiracy and not being away of some of the sketchy stuff that goes around. I think people get torn apart for being skeptical rather than just blindly trusting a lot of the vaccine stuff and not just vaccines you get praise for just trust the higher ups the government, medical professionals, but on your own you don’t.

With different groups of people in general its often that your grouped in with others and there’s definitely an extreme anti-vaccine group in regard to vaccines. You and I have had previous conversations and both of us have lumped each other into the extremist side and it does delegitimize people who are just trying to know, there’s nothing wrong with trying to know. I know from my perspective when I want to know I’m not trying to say they are wrong, doing devious stuff, like microchipping people but if I say I might be skeptical about a vaccine most people would think that I believe they are microchipping us and you do get lumped in and it doesn’t let people listen to you or want to listen to you or trust you or think you have anything real to say.

Alright Brooke thank you for talking to me today.

Thank you for having me