WATCH: Pittsburgh front-line health care workers get first COVID-19 vaccinations
UPMC is administering the first doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine that arrived Monday.
DAVID? DAVID: THOSE 975 VACCINE DOSES ARRIVED HERE AT CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL THIS MORNING. FRONTLINE WORKERS WHO HAVE FRANKLY PUT THEIR HEALTH ON THE LINE WERE THE FIRST TO GET THE VACCINE THIS MORNING. EXPERTS SAY THIS IS GOOD NEWS. THERE ARE REASONS FOR HOPE AND OPTIMISM, BUT WE ARE NOT CLOSE TO LETTING DOWN OUR GUARD. JA'RAY GAMBLE TRANSPORTS PATIENTS. >> I AM GETTING THIS VACCINE SO THAT I CAN PROTECT MYSELF AND PRETTY MUCH EVERYONE AROUND ME, REALLY. DAVID: CHARMAINE PYKOSH IS A NURSE PRACTITIONER FOR 30 YEARS, AND HER COWORKERS CHOSE HER. >> THEY ALL WANTED TO BE FIRST, BUT THEY VOTED FOR ME TO GO FIRST. DAVID: WITH A PRICK, PYKOSH WAS THE FIRST UPMC EMPLOYEE TO GET THE PFIZER VACCINE. DOCTORS HERE SAY THIS IMAGE, THIS VACCINE, IS WHAT WE'VE ALL HOPED FOR THIS 2020. >> WE'RE EXCITED AND OPTIMISTIC THAT WE'LL LIKELY HAVE ENOUGH VACCINE VERY SOON TO REACH ALL HEALTHCARE WORKERS. DAVID: DR. GRAHAM SNYDER IS UPMC'S DIRECTOR OF INFECTION PREVENTION. THESE FRONTLNIE HEALTHCARE WORKERS, OLDER, AND MORE VULNERABLE PATIENTS WILL GET PRIORITY. THE STATE HEALTH DEPARTMENT DETERMINES WHEN AND HOW MANY DOSES HOSPITALS ACROSS THE STATE GET, WHICH IS STILL AN EVOLVING PROCESS. >> THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END. THAT IS A GREAT THING. DAVID: MARK ROBERTS RUNS PITT'S PUBLIC HEALTH DYNAMICS LAB, WHICH DOES COVID-19 MODELING. HE SAYS WE'RE STILL MONTHS AWAY FROM GETTING ENOUGH PEOPLE VACCINATED FROM FEELING NORMAL AGAIN. BUT TODAY, HE SAYS, IS A SMALL, MOMENTOUS STEP. >> IT'S GOING TO BE A WHILE BEFORE WE GET THERE. NOW, IT WILL BE SOONER THAN THAT WE'LL SEE A TAIL OFF IN CASES AND DEATHS AND THINGS LIKE THAT, BUT I WOULDN'T WANT THAT TO CHANGE PEOPLE'S BEHAVIORS. DAVID: I REACHED OUT TO ALLEGHENY HEALTH NETWORK, THEY'RE EXPECTING TO GET DOSES IN THE NEXT DAY OR TWO. WE'RE LIVE OUTSIDE
Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Pittsburgh, and UPMC administered the first doses to several front-line health care workers Monday.Click the video player above to watch the first vaccinations.Charmaine Pykosh, a nurse practitioner at UPMC Presbyterian, was the first to be vaccinated. Coworkers in her unit took a vote and chose Pykosh to be the first to get the vaccine."Yes, my heart was pounding, it was pounding more last night, I couldn't sleep," Pykosh said.Ja'Ray Gamble is a patient transporter who jumped at the chance to get the vaccine."I am getting this vaccine so that I can protect myself and pretty much everyone around me, really," Gamble said.The vaccine will also be distributed to people living in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and is then expected to be given to essential workers before going out to the general public, says Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC's head of infectious diseases.Snyder says it will take months to vaccinate UPMC's 90,000-plus employees, and none will be required to get the vaccine at this point."We're excited and optimistic that we'll likely have enough vaccine very soon to reach all healthcare workers, and so this prioritization is really in the early stages," Snyder said.Early on, the Pennsylvania Department of Health will choose which hospitals get vaccine doses. UPMC received 975 vials Monday morning.The long-awaited vaccine was delivered in a brown UPS van that pulled into the garage at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in the city's Lawrenceville neighborhood around 9 a.m.Mark Roberts is the director of the University of Pittsburgh's Health Dynamics Lab, which does modeling for COVID-19.Roberts says today's vaccine news marks a small, yet momentous step."It's the first day of a really great advance in the science of vaccinations and in this particular battle of COVID-19, but it will be many, many tomorrows until we can relax," Roberts said.Roberts says trials for multiple vaccines advancing, and the ramp-up in production are good signs, but it's going to take time before enough people can get vaccinated. Roberts says people should continue taking precautions, even as vaccinations ramp up,"It's going to be a while before we get there. Now, it will be sooner than that we'll see a tail off in cases and deaths and things like that, but I wouldn't want that to change people's behaviors," Roberts said.
Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Pittsburgh, and UPMC administered the first doses to several front-line health care workers Monday.
Click the video player above to watch the first vaccinations.
Charmaine Pykosh, a nurse practitioner at UPMC Presbyterian, was the first to be vaccinated. Coworkers in her unit took a vote and chose Pykosh to be the first to get the vaccine.
"Yes, my heart was pounding, it was pounding more last night, I couldn't sleep," Pykosh said.
Ja'Ray Gamble is a patient transporter who jumped at the chance to get the vaccine.
"I am getting this vaccine so that I can protect myself and pretty much everyone around me, really," Gamble said.
The vaccine will also be distributed to people living in long-term care facilities such as nursing homes and is then expected to be given to essential workers before going out to the general public, says Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC's head of infectious diseases.
Pennsylvania to get more than 100,000 vaccine doses
Snyder says it will take months to vaccinate UPMC's 90,000-plus employees, and none will be required to get the vaccine at this point.
"We're excited and optimistic that we'll likely have enough vaccine very soon to reach all healthcare workers, and so this prioritization is really in the early stages," Snyder said.
Early on, the Pennsylvania Department of Health will choose which hospitals get vaccine doses. UPMC received 975 vials Monday morning.
The long-awaited vaccine was delivered in a brown UPS van that pulled into the garage at UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh in the city's Lawrenceville neighborhood around 9 a.m.
Mark Roberts is the director of the University of Pittsburgh's Health Dynamics Lab, which does modeling for COVID-19.
Roberts says today's vaccine news marks a small, yet momentous step.
"It's the first day of a really great advance in the science of vaccinations and in this particular battle of COVID-19, but it will be many, many tomorrows until we can relax," Roberts said.
Roberts says trials for multiple vaccines advancing, and the ramp-up in production are good signs, but it's going to take time before enough people can get vaccinated. Roberts says people should continue taking precautions, even as vaccinations ramp up,
"It's going to be a while before we get there. Now, it will be sooner than that we'll see a tail off in cases and deaths and things like that, but I wouldn't want that to change people's behaviors," Roberts said.
COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Pittsburgh