COVID-19 vaccine welcomed by optimism, friendship in metro health

Grand Rapids, Michigan — A wave of emotions struck Melissa Goebel on Friday morning when she began her first dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to a colleague at Metro Health, Michigan State University.

As a nurse at Wyoming Hospital, she has seen infectious respiratory diseases damaging patients and their families, as well as colleagues working at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. So when she was offered the opportunity to help administer the vaccine, she jumped at it.

She said she wanted to protect her colleagues from the virus and play her part in supporting what is called “the biggest vaccination campaign in US history.”

“Some of the people I’m vaccinated against are my friends,” Goebel said. “I will vaccinate my husband in the last few hours. He will be here at 10:15 am. I knew this was a big moment, and I expected it. But I wasn’t just expecting the chills and feelings I felt. “

Located about 10 miles south of downtown Grand Rapids, Metro is a 208-bed hospital that is the latest West Michigan healthcare system to begin vaccination of front-line healthcare professionals with coronavirus vaccines.

Spectrum Health began vaccination of employees earlier this week, and Mercy Health St. Mary’s announced that it had been vaccinated Thursday afternoon. The Kent County Health Department also began vaccination of employees on Friday, December 18.

Metro has been vaccinated with 975 doses of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and started vaccination at 6 am on Friday. It is provided to employees who have direct contact with COVID-19 patients, from nurses and doctors to housekeeping staff who clean the room where coronavirus patients are staying.

Vaccines are “highly recommended” rather than mandatory for approximately 3,500 employees of the metro.

Dr. Ron Grifka, Chief Medical Officer of Metro, said the coronavirus pandemic, and the solid commitment to vaccine development, is “one of the greatest moments I remember in medicine.”

“Vaccines will be the next step in getting out of this horrific pandemic,” he said, adding that Metro expects to receive more vaccines in the coming weeks. “Masking helped. Social distance helped. But to really immunize the community, to hear immunity, so that we can redo what we want to do … Vaccines are us Is the endpoint of. “

Relation: The COVID-19 vaccine is a “blessing,” says the first West Michigan doctor received the dose.

Pfizer’s vaccine was developed as part of Operation Warp Speed, the White House’s coronavirus vaccine initiative. Created in about 9 months Fastest vaccine ever.. It far exceeds the mumps vaccine that was developed in four years and was generally distributed in 1977.

Vaccines were developed at record speeds, so some people may hesitate to take them, but Glyphka claims the drug is safe and should take it when it becomes available. I urged the residents.

“It’s a very safe vaccine,” he said. “This is a very effective vaccine. I believe it. I believe in the technology that determined it. I got the vaccine myself.”

Since the onset of the pandemic, Michigan has had 487,356 confirmed, or perhaps COVID-19 infections, and 11,801 confirmed or estimated deaths, state data show.

In Kent County, there are 40,571 confirmed or possible cases and 483 confirmed or possible deaths.

Like other hospitals in the state, the metro is tense this fall due to a surge in COVID-19 patients. As of Friday, the hospital was treating 37 COVID-19 patients, down from a high of 69 patients in mid-November. Since the start of the pandemic in March, we have treated 412 COVID patients.

Dr. Gabriel Pedraza was the first employee to take the vaccine in the metro and took it at 6 am. He called the vaccine “great,” and the drug “hopefully ends this pandemic with the light at the end of the tunnel.”

“I’m confident that the FDA and CDC will not release unsafe vaccines,” said Pedraza. “For me, the risk of getting COVID is much higher than the risk of vaccination.”

Independent Kaiser Family Foundation Announcement of survey this week 71% of respondents indicated that they would “certainly or probably” take the COVID-19 vaccine if “scientists determined it was safe and available free of charge to anyone who wanted it.” I will.

This is up from 63% in September.

However, 27% of respondents said that “even if the COVID-19 vaccine is available free of charge and is considered safe by scientists, it will probably or will not be given.”

According to the survey, “vaccine hesitage is highest among Republicans (42%), ages 30-49 (36%), and locals (35%).

Julie Persky, a nurse working in the metro’s obstetrics and gynecology department, was one of the vaccinated people on Friday morning. She said she hopes that her willingness to vaccinate will encourage others to do the same.

“I was really excited,” she said when asked how she felt about taking the drug. “This gives us the opportunity to show that we, as healthcare providers, trust science and are ready to protect our patients as well as ourselves.”

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