Vaccine, 'a glimmer of hope,' arrives at Taylor Community

LACONIA — A team of about a half-dozen syringe-wielding technicians from CVS spent the day Wednesday at the Taylor Community, marking the first local inoculations against the virus that has hung over the world for much of 2020.

The threat of the coronavirus has disrupted daily lives for most people in the United States, but few more so than those who live or work in nursing homes. At the Taylor Community, residents haven’t been able to make excursions, except for short ones in which they don’t leave the community’s bus; and they haven’t been able to visit with family members, except through a teleconference or a closed exterior window.

Likewise, care providers have had to use caution with regard to their own lives, for fear that they could be the unwitting vector through which the virus makes its way into the community. Those efforts have paid off so far, with the Taylor Community recording only a single positive case of COVID-19 this year.

For staff and residents of the community, the chance to receive a vaccine means the hope that severe restrictions might soon be lifted. That hope must be taken with a dose of reality, though. The Pfizer-developed vaccine’s protection develops a couple of weeks after the second dose, so those who received an injection today won’t be fully protected until the end of January.

Even so, many of those who got the shot yesterday welcomed it as a treasured holiday gift. Michael Flaherty, president and CEO of the nonprofit retirement community, said the vaccines were offered – not required but strongly encouraged – to all 30 nursing home residents, and to all 200 employees.

“The vaccine makes me tear up just talking about it,” said Taylor Coursey, senior clinical leader for assisted living at the Taylor Community. She remembers the day, months ago, when they were told they would have to close the nursing home to visitors, that they wouldn’t be able to take the residents on their usual trips off campus, and that they didn’t know how long the restrictions would last. “Now we’ll remember the day we reopened and reunited them with their families,” Coursey said. She still doesn’t know when that day will come, but it seems closer now than it has been all year.

“It gives us hope,” she said. “For the doors to reopen and the families to come back in and give their moms and dads and grandparents hugs, that’s the hope. The vaccine gives us the glimmer of hope that we haven’t had until now.”

That sense of hope was mixed with relief for Crystal Hardy, assistant director of nursing. “We’re protecting our residents,” she said, adding that she didn’t consider herself or anyone in her family to be especially vulnerable to the virus. Rather, her concern was that she would bring the virus into the nursing home. “It’s not about protecting me, it’s that I’ll be able to come to work and know that I’m protecting our residents.”

In about two weeks’ time, Taylor Community will bring back the pharmacy technicians to give residents of the assisted living facility their first round of shots, and independent living residents will follow sometime after, said Flaherty. He said it’s tempting to dream about how soon things will be “normal,” but that isn’t the primary goal of the program, he said.

“We can talk about getting back to normal, but what’s normal? Things change all the time.” Instead, Flaherty said the main benefit of the vaccine will be health. “It’s going to keep everybody safe, which is ultimately the most important thing.”