Dr. Jesse Tucker gets a very welcome shot
photo by Joseph Dycus
A handful of frontline medical professionals received the first COVID-19 vaccines in Hamilton County on Thursday afternoon. It only took a few moments to administer the first of what will be two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but the immunity against the virus should last forever.
“I’m one of the ICU doctors, and I’ve been taking care of patients in the COVID-19 units since March,” Dr. Jesse Tucker said.
“I feel great, and it’s kind of surreal. I was thinking about it on the way down from the Intensive Care Unit. The main thing I feel now is an enormous sense of awe.
“Our scientific infrastructure in this country produced a vaccine so quickly with such effectiveness and a great safety profile, that just months after the pandemic started, we’re already here.”
Dr. Mark Anderson said he has a “great sense of gratitude” for the developers of the vaccine, and has confidence the vaccine was developed safely and that no corners were cut. He said the vaccine was built upon research done over the course of the last decade.
“I think that vaccines are a wonderful thing for our health, and there is controversy about them but there have been millions of lives saved by vaccines since we began to give them as far back as the late 1700s,” Dr. Anderson said. “I’m a real believer in vaccines, and it’s important for us who have been trained in this to set an example and show we believe these vaccines work and are safe.”
CHI has received 975 doses of the vaccine, and officials said a second shipment of the vaccine should arrive in about three weeks. Dr. Patrick Ellis said that is what most facilities received.
“We’re serving them today and moving forward until Tuesday,” Dr. Ellis said. “It won’t cover the entire staff. We’re trying to prioritize the staff who are taking care of COVID patients first. We’re hoping to get all of those in by Christmas, and then the government will ship the second batch in 18 days.”
He said the first phase of vaccinating healthcare workers and long-term-care residents and staff may last into February. As the phases go on, the general public will then be able to get the vaccine. He said it would “be a while” but that could be changed if Moderna’s vaccine is developed quickly. He said around 250 vaccines should be administered a day to hospital staff.
He said the vaccines will be held in a ultra-cold freezer that can maintain the vaccines in an environment of negative 60 to negative 80 degrees Celsius.
One of the healthcare workers, Tiffany Dover, fainted a few minutes after receiving the vaccine. However, she said this is a regular occurrence for her and was not a side effect of the vaccine.
“I have a history of having an overactive vagal response. So if I have pain from a hangnail or a stubbed toe, I can pass out,“ Ms. Dover said, ”It just hit me all of a sudden, I had a bad headache and was a bit disoriented, but I feel fine now and the pain in my arm is minimal now. I have probably passed out six times in the last six weeks. It’s common for me. I could feel it coming on, but I was trying to push through.”