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IIt was 6.31am when Margaret Keenan, an early riser, rolled up her sleeves while sitting in a chair at her local hospital in Coventry, with the world press watching, and became the first person in the world to receive the vaccine. Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19. . The 90-year-old made history with a penguin Christmas sweater.
The sun had not yet risen, but a new dawn had begun in the UK’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
It only took a few seconds for Keenan, known to friends and family like Maggie, to get vaccinated. The hospital staff greeted her with applause as she was pushed down the hall in a wheelchair. It marked the beginning of the largest vaccination program the UK has ever seen.
Keenan, who has four grandchildren and will turn 91 next week, said: “I feel very privileged to be the first person to be vaccinated against Covid-19. It’s the best anticipated birthday gift I could ever wish for because it means that I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the new year after being alone for most of the year. “
The last week has been a roller coaster ride for the Keenans. Maggie’s son Philip, 61, said they were preparing for the worst when his mother was admitted to the hospital last Thursday with an infection. They placed her in intensive care.
“We are all completely shocked,” he said from his home in Hertfordshire. “Four days ago, my mom was dying. She had a medical emergency and we had to get an ambulance to take her to Coventry Hospital. My sister and I thought we were going to lose her, so I got ready to go upstairs and say goodbye.
But Keenan, who has been isolated for much of the year, made a remarkable recovery. “Two days later, my mom talks to me on the phone and it seems like it’s completely normal. She got her voice back, her breath back, and it’s like a miracle, to be honest. “
Originally from Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Keenan has lived in Coventry for over 60 years. Trained as a seamstress and window dresser, she worked for the C&A department store in Belfast and later in Coventry. She was a hard worker, said her son, who always spent Christmas Day serving meals to those in need.
And this is not the first time that Keenan has made history in British medicine. After contracting tuberculosis in the early 1950s, at age 19, he was one of the first people in the UK to receive streptomyces to treat his tuberculosis. She was treated for almost a year at Queens Hospital, Belfast.
The nurse who administered Keenan’s vaccine Tuesday, May Parson, said it was a “great honor” to be the first in the country to deliver the vaccine to a patient. “The last few months have been difficult for all of us who work in the NHS, but now there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel,” said Parson, who is originally from the Philippines and has worked in the NHS for the last 24 years.
Patients 80 years of age and older who are already attending the hospital as outpatients or who are about to be discharged after a hospital stay will be among the first to receive the injection that saved their lives. Each recipient will receive a booster injection after 21 days.
The second person to be vaccinated was 81-year-old William Shakespeare, known as Bill, from Warwickshire, who said he was pleased to have received it. Shakespeare, whose name sparked a series of online puns, said: “It could make a difference in our lives from now on.”
After watching Shakespeare’s vaccination, tearful Health Secretary Matt Hancock told Good Morning Britain: “It has been such a difficult year for so many people. William Shakespeare says it simply for everyone: that we can get on with our lives. “
Shakespeare’s niece Emily, 47, who lives in Tramore in Ireland, said that, like her famous namesake, her uncle’s last claim to fame was in Stratford Upon Avon.
“He was caught speeding in Stratford in the 1960s. It was the 1960s version of going viral,” he said before laughing. “He would just have been young and had this crazy old car. He was going down a hill and was caught. It was in the local press and everything. The story follows him wherever he goes. “
He said it was “brilliant” to see Bill, who has two children and four grandchildren, get vaccinated after being isolated for so long. The family said keeping in touch with him had been expensive because he didn’t have much internet connection and they had to rely on expensive phone calls. “I am very happy for him and his family and it is a step forward to see them. He’s really been missing them. “
And was there any connection to the playwright? Emily said she was 86% sure so, but planned to do more research when she retired.
Now that the UK has authorized the first Covid vaccine, who will get it first?
The government’s Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization (JCVI) says its priority is to prevent Covid-related deaths and protect health and social care personnel and systems.
Nursing home residents and their caregivers are first on the JCVI list because their risk of exposure to the virus is higher and because the risk of death is closely correlated with advancing age. They are followed as a priority by any other person over the age of 80 and front-line health and social care workers.
Still, for pragmatic reasons, NHS staff are likely to be the first group to take the Pfizer / BioNTech hit. This is because the vaccine must be stored at extremely cold temperatures, which can be more easily achieved using hospital facilities.
Are there enough doses to reach all priority groups?
Together, nursing home residents, their caregivers and those over 80 years old number nearly 6 million people, and frontline NHS staff 736,685 more. Matt Hancock, the health secretary, has said that he expects 10 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine to be available this year, so if this is the only licensed vaccine, everyone else would have to wait until there are more doses. available next year.
Where will I go for the vaccine?
Covid-19 vaccines are expected to be delivered to three types of locations: trusted NHS “vaccine centers” in hospitals; mass vaccination centers, which are being installed in places like football stadiums, conference buildings and racetracks; up to 5,000 people a day are expected to be vaccinated; and in general practitioners and pharmacies. GPs are also able to visit nursing home residents and homebound patients without travel.
How far apart will the two doses be administered and will I be protected after the first?
While there is some evidence indicating high levels of short-term protection with a single dose of vaccine, a two-dose schedule is what has been approved by the MHRA.
The second dose should be given at least 21 days after the first, and both will be injected into the deltoid muscle, the thick triangular muscle that we use to lift each arm.
For the Pfizer vaccine, its efficacy rate was calculated seven days after the second injection. People will likely have some protection before this, but this is how long it will take for full protection to kick in. We will learn more about the scope of protection and how long it lasts as data from ongoing clinical trials arrives.
Can I pay for the vaccine privately?
Unlikely. England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam has said he believes Covid-19 vaccines should be given according to clinical priority rather than allowing people to skip the queue if they can afford them.
Will I be able to choose which vaccine I have?
It is also unlikely, at least in the short to medium term. Assuming more than one vaccine is approved, the priority will be to distribute the available doses to people who need them as quickly as possible.
Linda Geddes
The day has also been an emotional one for NHS staff.
Claire Hobbs, a health and wellness practitioner and flu leader at the Milton Keynes University Hospital Trust, was vaccinating patients Tuesday. “It has been a very good feeling to know that there is something now that could give us that feeling of normalcy back. It could give families a chance to get together with the rest of their family, without having to worry about bubbles.
“It has given hope to many people across the country,” he said.
He said that overcoming the pandemic was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life. “There is not really a word that can describe what it has been like for the NHS, and especially for me.”
She added: “I think it’s a really good day for Britain.”
The start of the vaccination program went smoothly across the UK. In Scotland, Andrew Mencnarowski, clinical leader at NHS Lothian, was one of the first to receive the vaccine, while Joanna Sloan, a sister in charge of Covid vaccination for the Belfast Health and Social Care Trust, was the first to North Ireland. And Dr Nolan Arulraj, an acute care physician at Llandough University Hospital, was one of the first people in Wales to receive it, at a vaccination center in Cardiff. He joked that the speed of the UK launch meant Brexit “wasn’t that bad.”
In London, Winston and Lorna Lucas of Dulwich received the vaccine together at Guy’s hospital in London. Lorna, 81, said she felt good afterward, adding: “It has to be done. It has never worried me.
Her husband, also 81, said: “At least we’re at the beginning, this will at least help slow things down because you still find that some strange person doesn’t want it.”
Back in Hertfordshire, Philip Keenan was preparing to pick up his mother from the hospital on Wednesday. He describes her as a “pretty strong” woman: “She was just decorating my house last year. She was decorating my bathroom. She was 89 then.”
The day has been a whirlwind for both of us. Neither of them expected him to become an international media star, appearing in publications such as the Washington Post and the Japan Times. “I keep watching TV thinking, ‘This is my mom.’
