Fully vaccinated, Commissioner Leake now focused on getting other seniors to do the same

MECKLENBURG COUNTY, N.C. — “I just got off the phone with nine preachers,” Commissioner Vilma Leake told Eyewitness News Reporter Joe Bruno on Thursday. “Nine preachers. That is why I couldn’t call you earlier.”

This is a typical day for Leake. The district two representative is passionate about her district and all who live in it. Fresh off her second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, Leake has now made it her mission to get as many seniors vaccinated as possible. Her current push is trying to get Charlotte’s Clergy to host COVID-19 vaccination clinics for their congregations.

“I am praying that they will adhere to the call and the call is to get that shot,” she said.

Leake is the first to admit she was nervous about getting the shot initially. She has always had a fear of needles, going back to when she was vaccinated for polio in school.

“I said, ‘Oh my God, they are going to have to run and catch me to give me this shot,’” Leake told Channel 9.

But after hearing COVID-19 briefings every week from Health Director Gibbie Harris and seeing the low numbers of vaccine being taken by members of her community, Leake said she made the decision to get the shot.

“I dealt with it individually and prayerfully,” she said.

She recruited a friend and made an appointment at Bojangles Coliseum. Once there, she said people “couldn’t be nicer.” When it came time for her to be injected, the workers were extremely kind. Still, the nerves were still there.

Where do you fall in the line for a COVID-19 vaccine?

“When they told me to take off my coat, I said, ‘No, you take off my sleeve because if I have to run I’ll at least have one side of my coat on,’” she said.

Leake never ran. In fact, the whole process was so quick and painless, she didn’t realize at first it was finished.

“I stuck my arm out and said, ‘Do what you have to do.’ I just said, ‘Don’t hurt me, OK?’ After a few minutes, I said, ‘Have you started yet?’ and she said, ‘No, I am through,’” Leake recounted.

The commissioner didn’t experience any side effects after either dose of vaccine.

“I had no headache, no fever, no anything,” she said. “It was as if nothing had changed.”

After the second dose of vaccine, Leake and her friend treated themselves to a meal out. Leake ordered pancakes and sausage to celebrate.

Her attention now is to increase the number of vaccines distributed to people in her district and seniors in Mecklenburg County.

“Do you want to live or do you want to die?” she said. “You know you’re going to die but do you want to live? Do you want to leave a legacy that you helped the future generation born and unborn? We’ve got to do that. What will our ancestors think? Life is a chance. You can walk out the door and be struck by an 18-wheeler. So all I am saying, give our future generations an opportunity to live.”

Cox Media Group