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NEW YORK (Reuters) – An intensive care unit nurse became the first person in the United States to receive the newly licensed Pfizer / BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, calling it a sign that “cure is coming. “As the number of deaths from coronavirus in the US approaches 300,000.
Sandra Lindsay, who has treated some of the sickest patients for COVID-19 for months, received the vaccine at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center in the Queens borough of New York City, one of the earliest epicenters of the outbreak. of COVID-19 in the country, receiving applause on a live broadcast with the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo.
“It felt no different than taking any other vaccine,” Lindsay said. “I feel hopeful today, relieved. I feel like the cure is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history. I want to instill public confidence that the vaccine is safe.”
Cuomo tweeted a photo of Lindsay, wearing a mask and staring straight ahead, as a doctor injected her arm, and said she was the first American to be vaccinated.
“This is what heroes look like,” Cuomo wrote.
Minutes after Lindsay received the injection, President Donald Trump tweeted: “The first vaccine was administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!”
Northwell Health, New York State’s largest healthcare system, operates some of the select hospitals in the United States that administered the country’s first inoculations of the COVID-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials Monday.
The vaccine, developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE, won an emergency use authorization from federal regulators on Friday after it was found to be 95% effective at preventing disease in a large clinical trial.
The first 2.9 million doses began shipping to distribution centers across the country on Sunday, just 11 months after the United States documented its first COVID-19 case.
As of Monday, the United States had recorded more than 16 million cases of COVID-19 and was rapidly approaching the grim milestone of 300,000 deaths from the virus.
“It’s been an amazing morning. It’s historic,” said Dr. Leonardo Seoane, speaking via live video Monday after becoming one of the first Louisiana residents to receive the vaccine at Ochsner Medical Center in New York. Orleans, where he conducted some of the clinical trials for Pfizer’s injection.
LOGISTICS CHALLENGE
The first U.S. shipments of the coronavirus vaccine left Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, Michigan facility on Sunday, packed in trucks with dry ice to maintain the required temperature of minus 70 degrees Celsius (-94 Fahrenheit). They were transported to waiting UPS and FedEx planes at Lansing and Grand Rapids airfields, kicking off a nationwide immunization effort of unprecedented complexity.
The planes delivered the shipments to UPS and FedEx freight centers in Louisville and Memphis, from where they were loaded onto planes and trucks for distribution to the first 145 of 636 vaccine preparation areas across the country. The second and third waves of vaccine shipments were due to go to the remaining sites on Tuesday and Wednesday.
“This is the most difficult vaccine launch ever,” Surgeon General Jerome Adams told Fox News on Monday.
“There will certainly be setbacks, but we have done everything from the federal level and working with partners to make everything go as smoothly as possible. Please bear with us,” Adams said, adding that he would receive the injection as soon as possible. possible. he could.
MORE DOSE ON THE ROAD
Healthcare workers and elderly residents of long-term care homes will be the first to receive vaccinations in a two-dose regimen given three weeks apart. Next will be essential workers, as determined by US states, and seniors with underlying health issues.
America’s leading infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told MSNBC on Monday that Americans without elevated risk factors could expect to get vaccinated “by the end of March, early April.”
“By the end of the second quarter of 2021, maybe late spring … so that when we get to fall, we can begin to approach some degree of relief,” Fauci said.
Health officials warned that masks and social distancing will continue to be necessary for months to control the current outbreak. US Operation Warp Speed chief adviser Moncef Slaoui said the United States expects to have about 40 million doses of vaccines, enough for 20 million people, distributed by the end of this month. That would include vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna Inc. An external advisory panel from the US Food and Drug Administration is scheduled to consider the Moderna vaccine on Thursday, with emergency use expected to be awarded shortly thereafter. On Friday, Moderna announced that it had reached an agreement with the United States government to administer an additional 100 million doses in the second quarter.
Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla told CNN on Monday that the company plans to produce 1.3 billion doses next year and is working to increase that number to meet high demand, including a request from the US government. 100 million more doses for the second quarter of 2021. is still being negotiated. That is in addition to the 100 million expected by the end of the first quarter.
(Reported by Jonathan Allen, Gabriella Borter, Lisa Lambert, Lisa Baertlein, Nandita Bose, and Brendan O’Brien; Editing by Angus MacSwan, Paul Simao, and Bill Berkrot)
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