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U.S. NEWS Tuesday 15 december 2020

'Relieved': U.S. health workers start getting COVID-19 vaccine

By LAURAN NEERGAARD with staggered deliveries enough of both vaccines
AP Medical Writer set throughout the day and together to vaccinate 20
The biggest vaccina- Tuesday. A few other coun- million people by the end
tion campaign in U.S. his- tries have authorized the of the month, there won't
tory kicked off Monday as vaccine, including Britain, be enough for the average
health workers rolled up which started vaccinat- person to get a shot until
their sleeves for shots to pro- ing people last week, and spring.
tect them from COVID-19 Canada, which began do- "This is the light at the end
and start beating back ing so on Monday. of the tunnel. But it's a long
the pandemic — a day of For health care work- tunnel," New York Gov. An-
optimism even as the na- ers, who along with nurs- drew Cuomo said.
tion's death toll closed in ing home residents will be Now the hurdle is to rapidly
on 300,000. first in line for vaccination, get vaccine into the arms
"I feel hopeful today. Re- hope is tempered by grief of millions, not just doctors
lieved," critical care nurse and the sheer exhaustion and nurses but other at-risk
Sandra Lindsay said after of months spent battling a health workers such as jani- Sandra Lindsay, left, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical
getting a shot in the arm at coronavirus that still is surg- tors and food handlers — Center, is inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
Long Island Jewish Medical ing in the U.S. and around and then deliver a second by Dr. Michelle Chester, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, in the Queens
Center in New York. "I feel the world. dose three weeks later. borough of New York.
like healing is coming." "This is mile 24 of a mara- "We're also in the middle Associated Press
With a countdown of "3-2- thon. People are fatigued. of a surge, and it's the holi- Americans say they want the data in a daylong pub-
1," workers at Ohio State But we also recognize that days, and our health care to get vaccinated, while lic meeting last week for
University's Wexner Medical this end is in sight," said workers have been working about a quarter don't and scientists and consumers
Center gave the first injec- Dr. Chris Dale of Swedish at an extraordinary pace," the rest are unsure, ac- alike to see.
tions to applause. Health Services in Seattle. said Sue Mashni, chief cording to a recent poll by "Please, people, when you
And in suburban New Or- Packed in dry ice to stay at pharmacy officer at Mount The Associated Press-NORC look back in a year and
leans, Steven Lee, an in- ultra-frozen temperatures, Sinai Health System in New Center for Public Health you say to yourself, 'Did I
tensive care unit pharma- the first of nearly 3 million York City. Research. do the right thing?' I hope
cist at Ochsner Medical doses being shipped are Plus, the shots can cause The FDA, considered the you'll be able to say, 'Yes,
Center, summed up the a down payment on the temporary fever, fatigue world's strictest medical because I looked at the
moment as he got his own amount needed. More of and aches as they rev up regulator, said the Pfizer- evidence,'" Dr. Francis Col-
vaccination: "We can final- the Pfizer-BioNTech vac- people's immune systems, BioNTech vaccine, which lins, director of the National
ly prevent the disease as cine will arrive each week. forcing hospitals to stagger was developed at break- Institutes of Health, said
opposed to treating it." And later this week, the employee vaccinations. neck speed less than a Sunday on NBC's "Meet the
Other hospitals around the FDA will decide whether to A wary public will be watch- year after the virus was Press." "People are dying
country, from Rhode Island green-light the world's sec- ing closely to see whether identified, appears safe right now. How could you
to Texas, unloaded pre- ond rigorously studied CO- health workers embrace and strongly protective, possibly say, 'Let's wait and
cious frozen vials of vaccine VID-19 vaccine, made by vaccinations. Just half of and the agency laid out see'?"q
made by Pfizer Inc. and its Moderna Inc.
German partner BioNTech, While the U.S. hopes for

U.S. COVID-19 deaths

top 300,000 just as

vaccinations begin

By ADAM GELLER and “The numbers are stag-
H. HOLLINGSWORTH gering -- the most impact-
Associated Press ful respiratory pandemic
The U.S. death toll from that we have experi-
the coronavirus topped enced in over 102 years,
300,000 Monday just as since the iconic 1918
the country began dis- Spanish flu,” Dr. Anthony
pensing COVID-19 shots Fauci, the government’s
in a monumental cam- top infectious-disease ex-
paign to conquer the pert, said days before the
outbreak. milestone.
The number of dead ri- The U.S. crossed the
vals the population of threshold on the same
St. Louis or Pittsburgh. It is day health care work-
equivalent to repeating ers rolled up their sleeves
a tragedy on the scale for Pfizer’s COVID-19
of Hurricane Katrina ev- shot, marking the start of
ery day for 5 1/2 months. the biggest vaccination
It is more than five times campaign in American
the number of Americans history. If a second vac-
killed in the Vietnam War. cine is authorized soon,
It is equal to a 9/11 attack as expected, 20 million
every day for more than people could be immu-
100 days. nized by month’s end.q