Former cops, best friends die of COVID-19 two weeks apart.
NEW HAVEN — The first 2,925 doses of PfizerBioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Yale New Haven Hospital shortly after 8 a.m. Tuesday, and at 1:15 p.m. the first five Yale New Haven Health employees were given their shots.
They received their vaccinations during a Zoom press conference, which can be viewed on Yale New Haven Health’s Facebook page.
The five were Onyema Ogbuagu, principal investigator for the Pfizer COVID-19 Trial at the Yale Center for Clinical Investigation; Katherine-Kay Husler, a registered nurse in the medical intensive care unit; Terry Naser of environmental services; Mackenzie Kelly, a registered nurse in the Emergency Department; and Dr. Jonathan Siner, medical director of medical intensive care.
Ogbuagu, who directs the HIV clinical trials program at the Yale School of Medicine, said after he received his shot, “As a researcher who worked on the vaccine, as an infectious disease specialist who has been on the front lines of caring for patients with COVID-19, as a dad of three kids who are never impressed by anything I do in any way, as a person of color, I think it’s been really gratifying to be part of this process of the Pfizer vaccine.”
He added, “We join 44,000-plus individuals who already received this vaccine, and I hope the message today is that this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic ... and that we all need to roll up our sleeves, get this thing and move on. It feels like the flu shot that I’ve already received to protect myself against that. So this is a great day, I’m really excited and I think I’m on a path to being protected against the virus and also contributing to protecting my community and the patients I care for.”
Husler said, “I’m really grateful to be part of it and I’m really excited, as well, that this is hopefully the beginning of a change.”
Naser, who works on the transplant unit, which became a COVID unit, said he’s “seen patients struggle ... and just to be part of this is an honor.”
Kelly said she is “a mom, a nurse, a daughter. I haven’t seen my mom in almost a year now. So I’m grateful. We’ve seen a lot of really bad stuff in the emergency room, so this is hopeful.”
“It’s been a long and challenging year for a lot of people,” Siner said. “Everybody’s worked together, administrators, physicians, respiratory therapists, APPs, pharmacists. ... A lot of us are involved in this for the science of it and there are a lot of different ways of helping people, curing
them, both in the hospital and public health.”
Dr. Keith Churchwell, president of Yale New Haven Hospital, said there were 228 COVID patients in the hospital Tuesday and more than 430 across all five of the health system’s hospitals, and that more than 6,000 patients have been discharged since March.
“No one in this state has cared for more COVID patients, and our caregivers have continued to inspire us all with their focused dedication,” Churchwell said. “But we are at a crossroads in dealing with this disease.” He said patients with heart disease, cancer and stroke had stopped coming to the hospital in the spring and were more sick when they did come in. “Many of those patients deferred their care, out of fear or excessive caution, and today we are
seeing these patients sicker and more complex in their disease states, because no one gets healthier by delaying their care.”
Churchwell said the combination of those patients with the new surge of COVID patients “has made this second wave as intense and severe as the first. This vaccine will allow us to fight back with larger and more effective therapy for all of us.”
He said polls show more than 40 percent of people are unwilling to take the vaccine. “I suspect that many lack trust,” especially “in our most vulnerable populations,” Churchwell said. “I have heard the stories and I have read the myths but my advice to you is clear and direct: Stay away from the rumors and the stories that run too rampant on the internet and get
vaccinated and do it as soon as you can.”
Dr. Thomas Balcezak, chief clinical officer for Yale New Haven Health, said more than 400 employees would be vaccinated over the next few days. “We will have all of this vaccine delivered into the arms of our employees, all health care workers that no matter what job you do, if you come in contact with patients, we will get this vaccine into you.”
Balcezak said a priority would be “the front-line workers that have been caring for the highest percentage of the COVID patients, in the Emergency Department, in our ICU and in our other COVID units.” He said the goal now is to vaccinate everyone in six weeks.
The shipment of Yale New Haven Health’s first doses of the vaccine was flown by FedEx from Kalamazoo, Mich., to Bradley International Airport, then driven by truck to New Haven, where it was unloaded in a receiving area under the Air Rights Garage off South Frontage Road.
On hand to receive the box of doses, which must be stored at subfreezing temperatures, were Stacy Vaeth, executive director of pharmacy, Sarah Kelly, system director of pharmacy, children’s services and women’s services, Nilesh Amin, supervisor of pharmaceutical procurement, and Daniel Kilcoyne, manager of pharmacy operations.
“It went really well. It’s was pretty exciting,” Vaeth said. She said 975 doses would be sent to Griffin Hospital in Derby and 1,950 would be directed to the five hospitals of Yale New Haven Health and the Northeast Medical Group.
Kelly said the pharmacy staff counted the vials, entered them into the computer system and then notified the state Department of Public Health. “The inventory tracking is very specific to make sure we are in clear communication with the state” so that the location of each vial is recorded, she said,
Kelly said there are five 0.3-milliliter doses in each vial. “The vial has to be diluted and then we mix it, draw it up in five specific syringes,” she said.
“We’re ready to crush COVID, so we’re excited to roll this out today and tomorrow to our health care workers,” Vaeth said.
Both the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine, which just received Food and Drug Administration approval, require two shots. Pfizer’s must be taken 21 days apart, while Moderna’s must be taken 28 days apart. Both are about 95 percent effective but must be stored in subzero temperatures.