When a nurse received the vaccine, one nurse said, “I will treat my patients with more kindness and hope.”
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Nurse Sophie Woodbury, state epidemiologist Dr. Angela Dunn, and nurses Monte Roberts, Amanda Vicchrilli and William Brunt pose for a photo after the first Covid-19 vaccines are administered to the four LDS nurses Hospital, on Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
Christy Mulder, an intensive care nurse, became the first Utahn to receive an injection of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday as health workers were at the forefront of the state’s first shipments.
“It’s an overwhelming day today,” Mulder told reporters in a video news conference after she received the photo at the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City. “Lots of emotions. Excitement, joy. I’m still trying to process it all. “
Later Tuesday, four nurses at LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City received the first doses from that facility.
Nurse Monte Roberts, his voice cracked with emotion, said he had 100% confidence in the vaccine. “My belief is the belief of research,” said Roberts at LDS Hospital. The people who developed the vaccine, he said, “are what keeps me safe, my patients safe, and my family safe.”
By 4 p.m., Intermountain Healthcare spokesperson Jess Gomez said, more than 90 front-line workers at LDS Hospital had received the vaccine.
Mulder said while working in the ICU during the pandemic, “it is painful to see patients suffer for so long.” There is always suffering in intensive care, she said, but “with COVID-19 it just feels so long. That weight feels heavier over time. “
See the rollout of the vaccine, Mulder said, “is really overwhelming. It’s the beginning of an end, and that’s really helpful. … It feels like a weight being lifted. “
‘One of the best Christmas presents’
Diana Navarette, a registered nurse who works with Mulder in the University Hospital’s ICU, said, “It’s been a tough few months” for caring for COVID-19 patients. The vaccine, she said, is “like a light at the end of a tunnel.”
Maria Cuevas, an environmental services worker at the hospital, agreed. “We’re not at the end of the tunnel yet, but we’re coming.”
‘I always knew I would get the vaccine. This is sooner rather than later, ”says Brad Thompson, respiratory therapist. ‘I thought I would lead by example and get it first. I hope people will follow in our footsteps. “
Dr. Stephen Hartsell said he was “grateful” to be one of the first five people at University Hospital to receive the vaccine. “To see a vaccine produced so quickly and in our arms is just amazing,” he said, calling the vaccine “one of the best Christmas presents we’ve ever received.”
Hartsell said he and his colleagues hope to set an example, both to other health professionals and to the general public. “Hopefully this will encourage them to step up, line up and get the immunization,” he said.
Ninety minutes later, and a few miles west of University Hospital, reporters with masks and TV cameras observed nurse Julie Nelson put down a syringe and adhesive bandage and quickly applied an alcohol swab to one of the biceps of each of the four Intermountain nurses . punctured the needle and put the bandage on the injection site.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Julie Nelson will administer the Covid-19 vaccine to Amanda Vicchrilli, at LDS Hospital, on Tuesday, December 15, 2020.
Nelson handled the process expertly for Roberts, Andrea Vicchrilli, William Brunt and Sophia Woodbury. Vicchrilli called the moment important, but from a practical standpoint, she said, “to be honest, it was the easiest vaccination I’ve ever had.”
Woodbury said she was concerned about how the ongoing pandemic has affected her nursing prospects – and getting the vaccine will help with that.
“There are a lot of sick people, and we do our best to take care of them, but it’s also mentally draining,” said Woodbury. When she got the vaccine, she added, “I will treat my patients with more kindness and hope.”
Kavish Choudhary, senior director of the University of Utah Health Pharmacy, said his staff had “a bit of a whirlwind morning” Tuesday. The pharmacy was called before 7 a.m. on Tuesday to say the shipment had arrived at Salt Lake City International Airport.
The shipment reached the University Hospital within an hour, and the pharmacy staff called a representative from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to oversee the unpacking, Choudhary said.
The packages were taken from their shipping box, which is insulated and packed with dry ice to keep the vaccine at 95 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, to the hospital’s super-cold refrigerator. They had to sit for two hours before the staff could start thawing the vaccine to be administered. The first five recipients at the University Hospital received their injection at around 11:30 am
“The goal is to vaccinate our entire health care team,” said Dr. Andy Pavia, chief of childhood infectious diseases at the University of Utah Health. That’s not just doctors and nurses, but everyone who works in the hospital, especially those in areas with daily exposure to COVID-19 patients.
The university hospital aims to vaccinate 500 workers a day as soon as the process gets underway, Pavia said.
About 23,400 doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech, were scheduled to arrive in Utah Monday and Tuesday, in the first batch sent to rural hospitals. In the first phase of vaccine introduction in Utah, the first doses will be given to health professionals, followed by staff and residents of long-term care facilities.
The university received three boxes of the vaccine on Tuesday, totaling about 2,925 doses. LDS and Utah Valley, both administered by Intermountain, each received two boxes, each about 1,950 doses, on Monday. Gomez said the shipments arrived Tuesday at two more of the company’s hospitals: the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray and the Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George.
Those five hospitals were chosen to be the first to get the Pfizer vaccine because they have heavy COVID-19 caseloads and because they have the super-cold refrigeration units needed to store the Pfizer version.
More doses are expected in the coming weeks, both the Pfizer version and a similar vaccine from Moderna Inc., expected to receive approval from the Food and Drug Administration by the end of the week. The Moderna version can be stored in standard freezers, so it is expected to be more easily transported to rural areas where the super cold fridges are not.
The state epidemiologist, Dr. Angela Dunn, attended LDS Hospital for the vaccinations and marveled at the speed at which the vaccines were being developed. After all, it’s been about a year, she said, since she and other Utah Department of Health officials received their initial briefings from the CDC about a new coronavirus.
Dunn warned people not to be wary, with a reminder that most Utahns won’t get the vaccine until the summer. “What I implore the people of Utah is to stay vigilant, not complacent, all vacation and winter,” she said.
Dunn said she is waiting in line for the vaccine at most of the other Utahns.
“I’d love to get it anytime, but I’m going to wait for the masses because I’m not at risk,” Dunn told The Salt Lake Tribune. “Zoom calls are my life now.”