By Mike Kruzman / news@whmi.com


A Howell nurse is sharing her experiences and thoughts on the vaccine after traveling to California to help fight COVID.

Chere Wolfe is a nurse of 27 years who began the pandemic working at the 1,000 bed University of Michigan Medical Center. When a friend informed her of the need for travel nurses in California, one of the hardest hit states with COVID, she fueled up her car and made the trip out west. Now she is working at a 220 bed hospital in southern California that is occupied by 187 COVID patients. She said their normally-22-bed ICU has expanded into a 6 other units, and that she and other nurses can’t take their masks off while on duty for even a minute.

Wolfe said there was next to zero orientation when she arrived and that it was really a trial by fire that should only be attempted by those most confident in their own abilities. She said she followed a couple nurses to her two units and had to hit the ground running. Wolfe had never seen or worked with the type of ventilator the hospital was using but knew she had to lean on her experience and figure it out quickly because people’s lives were depending on her.

Wolfe said some of her biggest concerns are that people are fatigued with orders and are not taking the disease seriously. She said young and healthy people are going out more when they shouldn’t be and bringing the disease home. All of Wolfe’s patients are older men, including one that hasn’t left his house during the pandemic. She said those with diabetes or who are obese are particularly susceptible.

This past week she got her first vaccine dose. Wolfe said that before going out west she was terrified of it and didn’t trust a vaccine that came out so quickly. Seeing what the disease does to people and what happens when they get sick, though, was an eye-opening moment that made her change her mind. Wolfe told WHMI, “You do not want to take a chance. It’s absolutely horrifying to watch somebody guppy breathing through a bypass and see their face looking at you terrified for their next breath.”

To hear more from Wolfe and her experiences on the front line, tune in to WHMI’s Viewpoint this Sunday morning at 8:30 when she will be the special guest.