"Hopefullysoon! I'm first on the list!", reads a text message from Dr. KrishanKumar, an Indian American doctor on the frontlines of the pandemic response inNew York City. Excitement and a sense of relief are palpable as the firstCovid-19 shots go into the arms of healthcare workers and nursing homeresidents in the United States.
Kumarworks in the emergency rooms of two hospitals, in Brooklyn and in Queens. Hismessage landed just as the very first shot in the United States was deliveredto a nurse in New York City, shortly before 9: 30 am Monday.
"Ifeel like healing is coming," said Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nursewho received the first vaccine in New York City, in Queens, in the full glareof news cameras.
Aftershe got the shot and it was sealed with a bandaid, Lindsay urged Americans tomask up, stay the course and get vaccinated when their time comes.
Asthese remarkable visuals play out, hospital workers across 50 states areunloading precious cargo: the first vials of nearly 3 million doses ofPfizer-BioNTech's Covid-19 vaccine which mark the shift towards real recoveryfrom a virus that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans in just 11 months.
ThePfizer vaccine is being transported from Pfizer's Kalamazoo, Michigan, factoryin massive trucks with dry ice packaging that allows it to stay at ultra-frozentemperatures. The shots are yet to be studied in children and in pregnantwomen.
Onthe night of December 11, US regulators approved emergency use of the Pfizerand BionTech vaccine for people aged 16 years and older, based onrecommendations from an independent vaccine advisory committee which debated forover nine hours before ending on a 17-4 vote.