The Covid-19 vaccine is a source of hope for health professionals. But it will come too late for hundreds

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“A nurse practitioner wrote on a small piece of paper that she got the vaccine for my father,” said his daughter, Andrea Araujo.

She wrote, ‘For my boss and my friend who died weeks before the vaccine. #ForDrAraujo.’ It was sad but also a lot of fun. ”

Araujo Preza was 51 when he died on November 30 in the same intensive care unit where he worked as chief of medical intensive care at HCA Houston Healthcare in Tomball, Texas.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 240,000 health workers have been infected with the coronavirus and nearly 900 have died.

For their families – and those of the more than 300,000 Americans who have died of Covid-19 – the long-awaited vaccine is a source of hope in a year of despair. But it will be too late.

Dr. Carlos Araujo Preza, a pulmonologist in the Houston area who died after contracting Covid-19 while caring for patients.

A ‘bittersweet’ moment

Hundreds of people across the country, mostly primary care health workers, received their first dose of the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine during a week in which nearly 20,000 Americans died from the virus. A second Covid-19 vaccine will be shipped shortly, with more than 237,000 people expected to die in the winter months.
Last Monday, when the first doses of the vaccine were delivered in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the national virus death toll surpassed 300,000.
Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities are first in line to receive the recordings. But it will be several months before most Americans can get one.

“I hope this is the first step in helping other people not go through what my family has been through,” said Andrea Araujo. “I hope we’re going in the right direction.”

Hope is hard work in a country that has surpassed its own hospital admission record for more than 12 consecutive days.

Over the weekend, there were more than 114,700 coronavirus patients across the country, according to US authorities COVID tracking project. The US reported an average of more than 219,000 new infections per day in the past week. On Friday, another record was set: more than 249,700 new infections were reported.
Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor was one of the first people in Kentucky to receive the new Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine last Monday. She described the moment as “bittersweet”.

“While I was running to get my vaccine, I had just heard that my 27th patient was dying, so it was very emotional,” she said.

‘The burden of fear was taken away’

Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care nurse in New York, received the vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration a week ago. She is believed to be the first person in the country to be vaccinated against the corona virus.

Lindsay, an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, got the photo from Dr. Michelle Chester, the corporate director of employee health services at Northwell Health.

Lindsay and Chester, both Black, represent two groups – people of color and health workers – who have been disproportionately affected by the national health crisis. They know that America’s history of racism in medical treatment and research and a lack of confidence in the federal government have made some black Americans and Latinos hesitate to take the vaccine.
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“Every day since March I’ve been at work … has gotten darker and darker,” Lindsay said Friday night at CNN Town Hall. “The Color of Covid – The Vaccines.”

‘I’ve seen its effects. And I don’t want you to end up in one of our IC beds or end up in our hospitals. ‘

She added, “I told my co-workers that in my 26 and a half years of nursing, I have never felt this scared. After the shot … I applauded. shoulders. “

American surgeon general Dr. Jerome Adams and Vice President Mike Pence received the vaccine publicly Friday as part of a campaign to encourage public confidence.

“We have to recognize that this … mistrust comes from a historical place,” Adams, who is black, told CNN. “But we also need to explain to people that we have taken precautions to make sure this never happens again.

“ If you look at Covid-19, the fact that you are three to five times more likely to end up in a hospital and / or die if you are African American, Hispanic or Native American, those are abuses going on to be. straight away.”

No worries about getting the vaccine

Araujo Preza was born in El Salvador and came to the US in 1994 to further his medical education. He attended Staten Island University Hospital in New York and Tulane University in New Orleans. In 2001 he moved to Houston, where he worked as a pulmonologist for nearly 20 years.

In April, during the height of the first wave of the pandemic, his daughter said he slept in the hospital for nearly a month on call. When he fell ill in October, he downplayed his condition so as not to worry his family.

Araujo Preza was admitted to the ICU in early November and remained there for about a week and a half. He had been out of the hospital for barely 48 hours before being re-admitted. As his condition deteriorated, he was transferred to Houston Methodist Hospital and later placed on a ventilator. He never returned home.

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“Throughout his life he has always worked very hard and was very committed to his patients and his practice,” said Andrea Araujo. “And this year more than ever before, he was an example of that.”

She has no reservations about receiving the vaccine, she said.

“I’m not a health worker, but I know my dad wanted to get the vaccine,” Araujo said. ‘And that gives me confidence. Anytime I get a chance to get it I will. ‘

Jhulan Banago said he feels no bitterness that his mother never received the vaccine.
Celia Yap-Banago – born in the Philippines – died in April at the age of 69, just days before celebrating her 40th anniversary as a nurse at the Research Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

“There is a great opportunity ahead of us,” said the 29-year-old engineer. “We can’t change what has already happened, and as I go on, I absolutely want health workers with 29-year-old sons not to have the interview we are doing now.”

Since her death, Yap-Banago’s family has always prepared a plate for her at dinner. They often put the TV on her favorite station – The Hallmark Channel, which she watched while falling asleep.

“Mom would certainly be thrilled and relieved to know that a vaccine has been developed to help us, to help frontline workers fight this terrible enemy,” Banago said.

CNN’s Harmeet Kaur, Catherine E. Shoichet, Christina Maxouris, Eric Levenson and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.

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