David Donahue, a respiratory therapist at Alaska Native Medical Center in Anchorage, sat next to nurse Emily Schubert Tuesday morning and rolled up his sleeve.
This week marks a historic turning point in Alaska’s battle with COVID-19, as some of the state’s first vaccines were delivered to primary care health workers.
“The hopes and dreams are that we will see enough people get the vaccine that will reduce the spread,” said Donahue.
Donahue is one of the few people who have now started the inoculation process for the first time since the disease started infecting and killing Alaskans in March. The state received its first shipment of vaccines from drug manufacturers Pfizer and BioNTech on Sunday night after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine for emergency use last week.
Despite what Donahue described as a “skosh” of nervousness, he received the short vaccination shot in his left arm from Schubert, who planned to administer 10 vaccines to her colleagues on Tuesday. And with a short poke, it was all done.
“I didn’t even feel it, right?” Schubert noted.
Donahue’s role as a respiratory therapist includes treating COVID-19 patients – in the emergency department, in the intensive care unit, in the labor department with mothers who have COVID-19 and are giving birth to babies, as well as treating children.
“We are really one of the front line crews,” he said.
All of the procedures that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deems to be the greatest risk for COVID-19 exposure are performed by respiratory therapists such as Donahue, he said.
At the beginning of the pandemic, he was very stressed about the virus. So much was unknown. But now they can reduce risk with personal protective equipment and improved procedures. But that’s not the only benefit, he said.
Getting the vaccine, Donahue said, means he may be able to see some of his family that he has had to avoid for most of the past year.
“I haven’t seen my grandmother in nine months because I just didn’t feel it was safe to go there,” Donahue said.
While Schubert, the nurse, is the one administering the vaccine, she hasn’t received it herself yet. She wanted her colleagues on the front lines to get it for her, she said. The hospital will continue to give vaccinations this week and next, Schubert said.
After Donahue left with his first injection, Dr. Michelle Hensel, a medical director of the community’s health assistance program, sat down for an inoculation that morning.
In her role in the health program, Hensel helps educate people statewide for wider distribution of vaccines. The vaccines, she said, are “landmark” to parts of rural Alaska.
“It’s so important because resources are so limited in many of our rural areas, so this is really going to prevent disease and prevent the need for a higher level of care and hopefully prevent many people from really getting sick or dying,” Hensel said.
Hensel insisted on holding up a sticker depicting Alaska’s chief medical officer, Dr. Anne Zink, who has been at the forefront of the state’s COVID-19 response. The sticker said, “Find new ways to be strong together.”
“My little tribute to Dr. Zink,” said Hensel. “She is amazing.”
Hensel said she was a little concerned – she got COVID-19 earlier this year. It was a mild case. After a random test came back positive, Hensel said she isolated herself in the basement for 10 days and only felt a little sore and fatigued on the seventh or eighth day, she said.
After the shot, her arm just felt a little tight.
“I woke up this morning thinking, this is just a small part of the beginning of the end of the suffering that COVID has brought to our world.”
While the Alaska governor said he would likely receive a COVID-19 vaccine sometime in the next few weeks, he said he respects the choice of those more insecure.
When asked what he would say to individuals who are skeptical or hesitant about the COVID-19 vaccine, Governor Mike Dunleavy said he understood their perspective and wanted to respect people’s personal health decisions.
“For those who are skeptical and don’t want to, that’s their choice,” Dunleavy said at a news conference on Tuesday. “They are fellow Alaskans, I think we should respect them. For those who do want a vaccination, that is their choice, they are fellow Alaskans and we must respect them. “
And for the governor himself, he will get the photos, he said.
The governor said he would likely get the vaccination sometime in the coming weeks.
“While we do this together, we are all individuals,” said Dunleavy.
The vaccine, from Pfizer and Biontech, received emergency use approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week, and is widely heralded as a step towards the end of the pandemic.
In trials, the vaccine was shown to be incredibly effective, preventing COVID-19 in more than 90% of the participants. It has passed security assessments in several countries, including the United States.
When asked if Dunleavy personally believed the vaccine to be safe and effective, and whether he would encourage other Alaskans to get it, the governor said that if he believed the shots were harmful to him, he wouldn’t get them.
“I’m going to do what I think is best for me,” said Dunleavy. “I would encourage others to do what they think is best for them.”
He said people should talk to their healthcare providers about the vaccine.