Dr. Lester Morehead, a hospitalist in the COVID-19 unit at Queen’s Medical Center, today was the first in Hawaii to receive the new Pfizer coronavirus vaccine since it was approved for emergency use in the US last week.
“I am honored. I want others to get it too,” said Morehead after receiving the first recording. “It’s very fair to be concerned, but I have faith in the science. I believe in it and I assure you that we need to end this, and this is the best way we can do it. My biggest fear is that people will not get the vaccine. “
Hawaii received its first delivery of COVID-19 vaccines on Monday, which will hopefully mark a turning point in the state’s fight against the pandemic, which has sickened nearly 20,000 people and left 274 dead.
The Queen’s Medical Center received a shipment of 975 doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine and today began immunizing the first five primary care workers.
Another 3,900 doses are expected to arrive on Wednesday, with nearly 45,000 more Pfizer vaccines coming this month. In addition, 36,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected by the end of the year, pending approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Deborah Lichota, a registered nurse in Queen’s medical intensive care unit who was one of the first to get the shots, was relieved when she finally saw the light at the end of a long and tiring tunnel.
“It has been very tiring and challenging on many levels as we as nurses want to save and protect lives and there have been times when we have held their hand at the bedside of our patients when it should be their family and loved ones,” she said . “We have seen the harmful effects of what this disease does. We’ve seen people who were once very strong became only a fraction of the person they were, and we need to find out. “
For “non-believers” or anti-vaccine advocates who refuse to be immunized, Lichota said she wishes they could “see the loss of someone’s light” when they develop serious complications from the virus.
“I’ve been there when someone just gasps to say their name and we rush to give them everything to give them life,” she added. “There are long-term effects that will haunt these people forever.”