LOUISVILLE, Ky. History landed in Louisville at 12:06 p.m. Sunday, in the back of a Boeing 757 airliner.
UPS Healthcare President Wes Wheeler called it “pretty magical.” Mayor Greg Fischer deemed it a “historic moment.” As the plane doors lifted, though, one UPS dock worker who watched the plane land had a more muted reaction The bird is here.
Now, it was time to start unloading the first U.S. shipment of coronavirus vaccines.
The COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged Kentucky and the rest of the nation for nine months, shuttering schools, restaurants and businesses and claiming nearly 300,000 lives. And while Sunday was a moment of hope, there was no time to celebrate the vaccines that landed at Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport would be shipped out later that day to other states across the eastern U.S., and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said some in the Bluegrass State could be inoculated as early as Monday morning.