As the United States covid-19 death rate nears 300,000, a little glimmer of home emerged: A nurse on the frontlines of the pandemic in hard-hit New York City is now the first person in the state—and, perhaps, the nation—to receive Pfizer’s covid-19 vaccine.
Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, was vaccinated on-camera Monday morning.
The injection was met with applause, and a message of hope from New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, who watched the event via livestream. It’s an admittedly strange visual but, hey, welcome to 2020.
“Sandra, you didn’t flinch!” Cuomo said.
“It didn’t feel any different from taking any other vaccine,” Lindsay replied. “I would like to thank all the frontline workers... I feel hopeful today. Relieved.”
She added that, as a nurse, she believes in science and urges everyone to receive the vaccine. “I want to instill public confidence that the vaccine is safe,” she said.”
“This is the light at the end of the tunnel,” Cuomo said. “But it’s a long tunnel, and we need people to continue to do the right thing and the smart thing all throughout the holiday season.”
Health care workers will be the first in the state to receive the covid-19 vaccine, and Cuomo noted the covid-19 vaccine may not reach “critical mass” until June, and that’s assuming the distribution won’t be an absolute shitshow.
But in other news, a vaccine isn’t all that Lindsay went home with: she got a dope “crushing covid-19" sticker as well.
Look, covid-19 vaccine skepticism from anti-vax chuds will only ramp up as the vaccine becomes more ubiquitous. If any of it can be offset by a cute sticker, I’m all for it.