A lot of people were taken aback when the COVID-19 vaccines became available and, at first, nearly as many people said they were not planning to get it as were.

Those numbers have shifted a bit, over time. According to a poll done by High Point University in early December, 41% of adult respondents said they planned to get a COVID-19 vaccine while 31% did not (27% were unsure at that time).

By February, 12% had already gotten the vaccine and another 45% said they were planning to.

Katie Tanner is a hairstylist in Reidsville who knows the value of a vaccine during the pandemic.

Related: Interim Clinical Considerations for Use of COVID-19 Vaccines Currently Authorized in the United States

“Because it’s very stressful,” says Katie. “I would love to get it, it would make life easier with going places and doing things and then, as long as I have my vaccination card at work, it wouldn’t matter – I could go without a mask or a shield as long as my person is also vaccinated.”

But Katie is married and she and her husband, Evan, have yet to have children, but they do want to, when the time is right and Katie is concerned that the vaccine might create issues with that.

“I’ve talked to people and they aren’t sure what it could potentially do with fertility,” she says.

Angela Smith’s daughter, Madison, works in health care.

“Of course, we listen to what she has to say and she’s, right now, against the vaccine which I probably wouldn’t get anyway because I never got a flu shot until I started volunteering at the hospital. She says it’s just not enough out there and they haven’t studied it enough,” says Angela.

Their daughter is also in her 20s and might want to have children when she’s married. The Smiths have all read about the rare cases of vaccines causing an issue with pregnancies, so they’re cautious.

“I think the long-term effect is what we don’t know about, right now,” says Angela.

See more of why some of our Project 2021 subjects are concerned about side effects in this report.