WASHINGTON Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Surgeon General Jerome Adams stressed the vaccine’s safety and effectiveness, while raising issues of social equity.
The officials spoke Monday at a George Washington University Hospital event Monday to launch the vaccination of health care workers in the nation’s capital.
Adams, who is Black, said it would be a tragedy if the disparate impact of COVID-19 on communities of color got worse because of hesitancy to get the vaccine. “We know that lack of trust is a major cause for reluctance, especially in communities of color,” said Adams.
Azar said the vaccines bring hope, but “all of that hope doesn’t matter if we don’t bridge to that point” where widespread vaccination puts and end to the pandemic. So he called on Americans to double down on practicing responsible behaviors such as avoiding travel and gatherings, maintaining social distance, wearing masks and washing their hands frequently.
ICU nurse in New York among the first people in the US to get authorized coronavirus vaccine By: CNN
By Eric Levenson, CNN (CNN) A critical care nurse was the first person in New York and among the first people in the United States to get a shot of the coronavirus vaccine authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Sandra Lindsay, an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York City, was administered the vaccine during a live video event at about 9:20 a.m. ET on Monday.
Dr. Michelle Chester, the corporate director of employee health services at Northwell Health, delivered the shot.
First Americans receive initial doses of Pfizer s COVID-19 vaccine
AP
FILE - This May 4, 2020, file photo provided by the University of Maryland School of Medicine, shows the first patient enrolled in Pfizer s COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine clinical trial at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Pfizer and BioNTech say they ve won permission Wednesday, Dec. 2, 2020, for emergency use of their COVID-19 vaccine in Britain, the worldâs first coronavirus shot thatâs backed by rigorous science and a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic. (Courtesy of University of Maryland School of Medicine via AP, File)
and last updated 2020-12-14 14:36:38-05
OKLAHOMA CITY An Oklahoma City emergency room nurse has become the first person in the state to be vaccinated with Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine.
Hannah White, 31, laughed before the vaccination and again afterward as she hugged the person who injected her at Integris Baptist Medical Center while showing no reaction as the needle entered her arm.
“I don’t have any burning at the site, I have no pain. I didn’t feel it,” White said, and encouraged others to receive the vaccination as they become eligible based on the state’s four-phase plan.
The first 33,000 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine arrived Monday in the state, according to state health commissioner Dr. Lance Frye.
The Latest: COVID-19 vaccinations beginning in California
December 14, 2020
LOS ANGELES Vaccinations against COVID-19 began Monday in California amid a huge surge in infections and hospitalizations.
Intensive care unit nurse Helen Cordova received a shot of the Pfizer vaccine at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who watched and applauded, tweeted that Cordova was one of the first Californians to be vaccinated.
The first shipments of the Pfizer vaccine left Michigan early Sunday for 145 distribution centers nationwide.
California’s initial batch was scheduled to total 325,000 doses.
The vaccine was sent to hospitals and other sites across the country that can store it at extremely low temperatures about 94 degrees below zero. Pfizer is using containers with dry ice and GPS-enabled sensors to ensure each shipment stays colder.