After months of endless infections, increasing deaths and economic collapse, Hawaii residents can finally see the light at the end of a painful tunnel.
Dr. Lester Morehead, a hospital specialist at the Queen’s Medical Center COVID-19 unit, was the first island to receive the new Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, since it was approved for emergency use in the U.S. last week.
“I am honored. I want others to do the same, “Morehead said after the first shot. “It’s very fair to worry, but I believe in science. I believe in it and I assure you we need to finish this and this is the best way we can do this. My biggest fear is that people will not get vaccinated. ”
Hawaii received the first delivery of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, with health experts hoping the state will take a turn in the fight against coronavirus, which will make about 20,000 people sick and 274 dead.
Queen’s Medical Center received a shipment of 975 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and began vaccinating the first five front-line workers – Morehead, two nurses, a respirator and housekeeping aid – and will increase vaccinations on Wednesday, while another 3,900 doses arrive. Is.
“It simply came to our notice then. I had tears of joy yesterday when we received 3 vaccine bottles. This is the first time we have hoped to fight this devastating disease. Jill Hoggard Green, president and CEO of Queen’s Health Systems, said: “We have seen a lot of pain and suffering. This gives us the opportunity to move on and stay in crime instead of fighting the disease later. ”
In addition to the 000,000 doses of the Moder vaccine by the end of the year, about 45,000 more Pfizer vaccines are set to be sent to the state this month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval is pending. Tripler Army Medical Center received the first shipment of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday and will begin giving inoculations on Wednesday.
Deborah Lichotta, a registered nurse at the Queen’s Medical Intensive Care Unit and one of the first to receive shots, was relieved to see a solution to a long and exhausting epidemic.
“It has been very tedious and challenging on many levels because we as nurses want to save and save lives and the time has come when we hold hands on our patients’ beds when it should be their families and loved ones with them. , ”She said. “We have seen the devastating consequences of what this disease does. We have seen people who were once very strong become just a part of the person they were and we need to get this back. “
“Unbelievers” or anti-vaccine advocates who refuse to be vaccinated, Lichotta said they wish they could “see someone’s light loss” when they develop serious complications of the virus.
“I was there when someone was panting to say their name and we were running to give them everything to be able to give them life,” he added. “There are long-term effects that will haunt these people forever.”
The feelings and stress for front line workers are overwhelming, said Charlene Peng, a registered nurse at the Infectious Diseases Unit.
“These patients come and they are very, very sick. Some of them can’t breathe and we’re on the front line પ્રયત્ન trying to help them and do everything we can so they can get better. Some of them die, they suffer, and some of them die. “I just hope that many other employees and people decide to get vaccinated. I mean if we can help save a creature, it will take all of this. “
Hawaii health officials have reported new coronavirus infections across the state, a total of 19,480 cases since the onset of the epidemic. The state’s official CWID-19 death toll is at 274 while no new deaths have been reported.
The ongoing outbreak has put Ohu in Tier 2 of Honolulu’s four-tier economic recovery plan. Although Mayor Kirk Caldwell had hoped to move into the less-restricted Tier 3 by Christmas, a growing number – partly due to the rupture of the shake improvement facility – would continue to ban residents from gathering in more than five groups. Caldwell said Tuesday he has asked the state not to include Halawa prisoners as part of the calculation of the Ohio case.
Despite the ongoing ban, health care workers say the vaccine brings hope to Hawaii.
“For us when we see this as the light at the end of the tunnel, that’s it,” Lichota said. “We saw it 100 years ago with the flu pandemic and how it wiped out people. Fifty plus years ago we had polio. Then we found a solution for it and that’s where we are right now. We need to push and encourage people to get vaccinated because we have seen what it can do for our population and to prevent diseases that can be so harmful and deadly. “
