A mother who once dismissed COVID as a hoax became the first parent in her state to allow her young daughter to get vaccinated against the...
A mother who once dismissed COVID as a hoax became the first parent in her state to allow her young daughter to get vaccinated against the virus.
Stacy Conrad, from Louisiana, said she previously subscribed to QAnon conspiracy theories dismissing the virus - but that she saw sense after her immunocompromised daughter Ella was unable to see friends for 18 months.
'In the very beginning, I kind of believed the hype that it was a conspiracy,' Stacy Conrad, an ex-QAnon conspiracy theorist, told CBS News' David Begnaud of her initial skepticism over the contagion, after her 10 year-old immunocompromised daughter, Ella, got the jab Wednesday.
Conrad had such an epiphany that Ella was the first child under 12 to receive her COVID shot in Louisiana on Wednesday, after the FDA approved the shot for kids aged five to 11.
The youngster was evidently delighted to receive the jab, and was filmed exclaiming: 'Oh my god, I have it in my body now, yay!,' afterwards.
Conrad revealed that she began to change her mind after a recent conversation with her husband, who slammed her beliefs as 'bizarre' and 'crazy.'
Louisiana mother Stacy Conrad became one of the first parents in the state to allow their kids aged under 12 to get vaccinated for the virus, after her ten-year-old daughter, Ella, got the jab Wednesday
The mom said part of the reason for her about-face was because Ella has ulcerative colitis.
It is a bowel disease that causes inflammation in the digestive tract. Ella takes medication that severely compromises her immune system, putting her at risk of a potentially severe COVID infection, and spurring her mom on to get the youngster vaccinated to protect her.
'I decided to put my energy into what was real and what was in front of me… The facts,' Conrad said, explaining her change of heart hours after her daughter got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
'I know that if my child gets COVID once she's fully vaccinated, that her risk of having severe COVID is minimal,' Conrad said.
Ella was thrilled to be among the first in line to get the shot. 'Oh my god, I have it in my body now, yay!' a visibly excited, newly vaccinated Ella told Begnaud Wednesday
For the past year-and-half, Ella has been unable to play with children her age out of concern of getting sick, due to her suppressed immune system, Conrad explained.
What's more, she had been homeschooled for years before that as well - before the virus even surfaced - to stave-off other contagious infections like the flu, making her exhilaration all the more understandable.
Since the virus posed such a serious threat to immunocompromised Ella, former COVID-19 denier Conrad only permitted the child to do individual activities - like horseback riding - since the pandemic started in early 2019.
The youth was thrilled to be one of the first in the state to get vaccinated, telling her mom she felt 'fine' after the shot, and that she 'didn't even feel it'
'It's been real hard watching her struggle through this, so I'm real excited,' Conrad said.
But, as mentioned, Conrad did not always have the same stance on her at-risk child getting the vaccine.
In fact, at the start of the pandemic, she says she did not believe in COVID-19 at all.
What's more, Conrad revealed that she began to subscribe to QAnon conspiracy theories after feeling guilty about keeping her child locked away from the outside world out of caution over the virus.
'I wanted to believe what the scientists were saying. I wanted to believe what the government officials were telling us,' she told Begnaud.
Ella, who hasn't been able to interact with kids her age during the pandemic due to her suppressed immune system, celebrated with a friend after getting administered the Pfizer vaccine
'I wanted to believe all of this stuff, but I also didn't want to shelter my kid and keep her inside.'
She explained that she then grew to become skeptical about the threat posed by the pandemic.
'I was trying to prove that it wasn't so - and hearing the QAnon conspiracies made it easier for me to not believe.'
'I believed that JFK was going to come back from the dead,' she added, detailing some of more bizarre beliefs of the conservative conspiracy outfit.
It originated from the fringe forum 4Chan, after an anonymous user calling themselves Q posted messages claiming to be a senior federal official and purporting to reveal a 'deep state' cabal intent on bringing down Donald Trump.
Conrad's old, controversial beliefs also exacerbated her young daughter's fears, she admitted to CBS.
Ella added: 'I was just terrified. I did not want to go outside anymore.'
After the discussion with her husband, however, Conrad began to subscribe to facts and science offered by doctors, instead of that of fringe followers from the controversial far-right group.
Conrad said that she began to subscribe to QAnon conspiracy theories after feeling guilty about keeping her child locked away from the outside world out of caution over the virus. Now, she is a pro-vaccine activist
Conrad, now a pro-vaccine activist, says she currently travels throughout her home state to educate people in underserved communities about the vaccine - and even helps them book appointments to get vaccinated.
On Wednesday, Ella became Conrad's latest appointment, with the youth getting vaccinated alongside her friend Kiki, and Kiki's brothers, Hudson and Cooper.
'We want to get vaccinated so we can hurry up and have a sleepover,' Ella exclaimed.
Due to Ella's compromised immune system, her doctor has said she probably will need four COVID-19 vaccine shots, instead of two, over a series of months so she is in a safe place.
In Louisiana, children are also eligible to receive the same cash incentive that the state has been offering to vaccinated adults - meaning children as young as five who gets a shot can walk home with a cool $100.
Scientists say COVID vaccines have been widely-tested on the age group, although their approval has not been without controversy.
Fewer than 700 children under the age of 18 have been killed by COVID since the virus hit the US in March 2020, according to CDC figures.
Younger people are more at risk of a very rare but potentially serious bout of heart inflammation if they do catch COVID, although medics still insist that the risks posed by the vaccine are far smaller than that of a potentially serious infection.
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