Moving scenes show the first coronavirus vaccine in the US being administered to healthcare workers across the country
Vincent Kalut / Photonews via Getty Images
- Healthcare workers administered shots to their colleagues across the nation this week, beginning the next long-awaited phase of the pandemic since it began in March.
- The Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last Friday, and the first batches of the vaccine rolled out earlier this week.
- The vaccine is said to be 95% effective, experts said.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The first US coronavirus vaccine rolled out across the country this week in record time.
The Food and Drug Administration gave emergency use approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine last Friday. The vaccine is said to be 95% effective, experts said. Batches of the vaccine were packaged and rolled out overnight on Sunday, and healthcare workers on the front lines were among the first to receive the shot.
Healthcare workers administered shots to their colleagues at the front lines, beginning the next long-awaited phase of the pandemic since it began in March.
AP Photo/Jay LaPrete
Healthcare workers at the UC Health, Cincinnati's academic healthcare system, were among the first in the state of Ohio to receive the coronavirus vaccines, WLWT 5 reported.
"This is a historic moment for our community, our region and the nation," UC Health president and CEO Richard P. Lofgren told WLWT 5. "From the beginning, UC and UC Health have participated in finding a cure as a clinical trial site, and our healthcare workers within our hospitals have tirelessly served on the front lines of the battle against COVID-19 for more than nine months."
"We are proud to have been selected as one of the very first healthcare systems to receive the vaccine."
Katie Walz, a registered ICU nurse working with UC Health and the first person in Cincinnati to receive the vaccine, said she got the shot to "do my part to reduce the spread of COVID-19."
"I've seen a lot of people this year suffer and die from COVID-19, and I'd like to do whatever we can to slow that process and be an example to others to show that the vaccine is safe and worth getting," Walz said.
New YorkMark Lennihan/AFP/Getty Image
Sandra Lindsay, an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York City, was the first person in New York and among one of the first people in the US to receive a vaccine.
Dr. Michelle Chester administered Lindsay's shot, and the moment was livestreamed shortly after 9 a.m. local time on Monday.
"She has a good touch, and it didn't feel any different than taking any other vaccine," Lindsay said.
"I have no fear," she told CNN's Anderson Cooper later Monday. "I trust the science. My profession is deeply rooted in science. I trust science. What I don't trust is getting COVID-19, because I don't know how it will affect me and the people around me that I could potentially transfer the virus to."
IllinoisJose M. Osorio/Chicago Tribune via AP
The first shipments of the coronavirus vaccine arrived in Illinois earlier this week, with a hospital on the West Side of Chicago being the first to give the first doses, WGN 9 reported.
Five healthcare workers at Loretto Hospital in Chicago were among the first to receive the coronavirus vaccine in the city.
"Today marks a momentous occasion not just this year but in American history," Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Monday. "Eleven months after scientists the world over got their hands on the genetic sequence of the virus, we are seeing the beginning of the end of this pandemic."
AlaskaLoren Holmes/Anchorage Daily News via AP, Pool
Staff at the Alaska Native Medical Center began receiving the state's first coronavirus shots Tuesday, and other area hospitals — including Providence Alaska Medical Center and Alaska Regional Hospital — followed suit on Wednesday.
Dr. Benjamin Westley, an infectious disease specialist based in Anchorage, said he had "never been this excited to a get a vaccine," the Anchorage Daily News reported Wednesday.
"By taking a vaccine, you're protecting people you love," Westley told ADN.
CaliforniaBrian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via AP, Pool
Healthcare workers in Los Angeles were among the first to get the US coronavirus vaccine earlier this week.
Helen Cordova, an ICU nurse who works at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, received the first shot at the hospital, followed by four other healthcare workers, KTLA 5 reported.
"I'm feeling great. I'm excited. I'm hopeful," Cordova told KTLA 5. "And I really encourage everyone to consider receiving the vaccine so we can start putting an end to this pandemic."
California Gov. Gavin Newsom shared the same optimistic outlook, saying "It's a day to celebrate. But again, it's a day to be mindful about the challenge we face."
KentuckyJon Cherry/Getty Images
Vaccines also arrived in Louisville, Kentucky, this week amid the nationwide rollout. One healthcare worker told The Washington Post that she was getting the shot in honor of the patients she lost amid the pandemic.
"I just lost my 27th patient today," Louisville physician Valerie Briones-Pryor told The Post. "So the vaccine I took today was for her family and for the other 26 I lost."
New JerseyKirsten Luce/Pool via Reuters
Maritza Beniquez, an emergency room nurse at Newark's University Hospital, became the first person in New Jersey to receive the coronavirus vaccine.
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and other officials applauded after the shot was administered to Beniquez, who said she "barely felt" the needle.
"I'm happy that in another month and a half, I won't have to be afraid to go into a room anymore. I won't have to be afraid to perform chest compressions or be present when they're intubating a patient," Beniquez said. "I don't want to be afraid anymore, and I don't want to have that risk of taking it home to my own family and my own friends."
TennesseeKevin Fogarty/Reuters
Healthcare workers in Memphis, Tennessee, were among the first in line to get the coronavirus vaccine after shipments arrived in the state on Monday, state Gov. Bill Lee announced.
One doctor, who had chosen not to get vaccinated in the past, said his perspective on vaccines was changed with the coronavirus shot.
"I have chosen not to get vaccinated in the past once I put pen to paper and compared the risks. This is not one of those times," Dr. Stephen Threlkeld, an infectious disease specialist at Baptist Hospital, told WREG-TV.
PennsylvaniaRachel Wisniewski/Reuters
More than 111,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine were distributed across the state of Pennsylvania this week, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported, with Philadelphia alone receiving its own allotment of 13,650 doses.
Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine said the vaccine should serve as a reminder for people to continue to comply with health safety guidelines to stem the spread of COVID-19.
"Until we can get everybody vaccinated, we need people to stand together … to stop the spread of this virus," she said, citing the Inquirer report.
WashingtonTed S. Warren/AP
Shipments of the coronavirus vaccine arrived in Washington state on Monday, and frontline workers at hospitals in the state began receiving their first doses the next day.
"The state was expected to receive 62,400 doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine," KING-TV reported.
Staff at the University of Washington Medical Center were among the first to receive the vaccines, and a UW spokesperson told KING-TV that it would go to nurses, doctors, environmental-services staff, and respiratory-care therapists.
The state is expected to receive more than 200,000 vaccines by the end of the month, but the first shipment is "tight," Michele Roberts, acting assistant secretary of the state's Department of Health, told the local news outlet.
"62,000 doses of vaccine is not enough for that whole 1A group, which is at least a half-million people," Roberts said.
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