“History of creation:” COVID-19 vaccination begins

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Nursing student Kendramak gently grasped the professor’s exposed upper arm with one hand. The other is a clasped syringe.

At the age of 25, she has been giving lots of shots while in nursing school. But she was worried that her hands would start shaking as the news camera flashed.

“We make history together,” Adelita Cantu, a professor at UT Health San Antonio Nursing School, told Mack.

The two women closed their eyes.

“Now,” Mack replied.

“Are you ready?”

The crowd at UT Health San Antonio won a small victory in a difficult battle against the virus, where 65-year-old Cantu took his first shot at the medical school, killing nearly 25,000 Texas people and robbing thousands of jobs. When I cheered.

Her vaccination took place the day after the Air Force Major at the Wilford Hall Emergency Surgery Center received her first vaccination in San Antonio on Monday. Operation Warp Speed, a nationwide vaccine distribution campaign, supplies military and private hospitals with separate vaccines.

UT Health San Antonio was one of the first four folk medical systems to receive Texas’ first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration late last week.

This development marked the beginning of one of the most ambitious vaccination campaigns in recent history. UPS and FedEx will rush about 2.9 million shots this week from Pfizer’s facility in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to healthcare systems across the country.

Nearly 225,000 people are heading to Texas. Over 28,000 of these doses were reserved for San Antonio healthcare providers, with the first 5,850 arriving at the UT Health loading dock early Monday morning.

“‘Hope in a vial’ is what I call it,” said nursing student Mack. “It’s not the end, but it’s a great step and it’s an honor to be part of it.”

In the auditorium where the School of Medicine held events and crowded lectures before the pandemic, UT Health will set up 24 stations where nursing students will administer nearly 1,000 COVID-19 to front-line healthcare professionals daily. About 100 employees were scheduled to be vaccinated on Tuesday afternoon.

Nursing students armed with face shields, masks, and disinfectant wipes carefully remove the vaccine from the vial and inject it into the bare upper arm under the supervision of a medical faculty member. The person who took the shot will be observed for 15 minutes after the reaction and will see the sticker “I GOT MY COVID-19 VACCINE”.

Fifteen minutes after Cantu took the shot, she said she felt no different than before.

“What I felt was the importance of that moment. The little gears and Kendra I could play,” said Cantu. “The sooner everyone gets vaccinated, the sooner everyone can live well in the community.”

Mack said the pandemic was personal to her. Her sister teacher is working on the possibility of being exposed to COVID-19 every day. So does her sister, a high school student. And her grandmother lives in a nursing home.

“I believe in vaccines,” Mack said. “I get it.”

Texas has enough supplies for the general public to reach the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19 and the risk of developing dangerous illnesses (such as health care workers and residents of nursing homes). Vaccines are prioritized as they can take months.

All UT Health employees at the highest risk of being exposed to the virus, including nurses and doctors, as well as administrative staff, are considered top priorities.

“Vaccination of healthcare professionals can reduce infections and quarantine in this important group as we care for cities and communities,” said Robert, Chief Medical Officer at UT Health. Dr. Leverence said. “Then, hospitals will experience lower levels of stress each time the viral community infection increases.”

Vaccinations at UT Health San Antonio began just hours on Tuesday morning after dozens of healthcare workers lined up in Austin to get the new vaccine. The MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, the Methodist Dallas Medical Center, and the Dell Medical School in UT Health Austin were the only other non-military medical systems in Texas that received shipments on Monday.

Austin sees an increase in infections slower this fall compared to other parts of the state, but recently, infections have increased, especially since Thanksgiving, and Dell Seton is a crowded hospital such as El Paso. It is one of the patient’s hubs that are airborne from Hotspot.

The University of Texas hospital and affiliated medical school will be vaccinated thousands of times and will be vaccinated to frontline staff until next week. Like San Antonio healthcare professionals, they get the second required dose of vaccine in January.

Dr. Clay Johnston, Dean of the Dell Medical School, said it needed to cover all healthcare professionals in need of the vaccine.

“The risk benefits are very clear,” Johnston said of his research on vaccines.

Del Seaton, like almost every hospital on the front lines of the pandemic, struggles to keep its staff healthy from the coronavirus, with several employees sick and quarantined. ..

“It’s amazing to be vaccinated so quickly. Think of it as the beginning of the end,” Johnston said.

Scientists and pharmaceutical companies have been working at an unprecedented pace to stop the epidemic of the coronavirus. Vaccines produced by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have emerged as potential candidates for vaccine development and usually take years.

According to study data, the Pfizer vaccine (which should be given twice every 3 weeks) is 95% effective and may begin to protect people after the first injection.

San Antonio Integrated Base-Lackland began its first dose on Monday.

Within the military’s largest San Antonio military health system, medical personnel at Wilford Hall and Brook Army Medical Center will be vaccinated first, said Squadron Leader John Degoz, director of the system.

Vaccination at BAMC can begin in a few days, but its commander, Brig. At a video conference between De Goes and Gausepohl on Tuesday, General Shan K Bagby did not specify a timeline. It can take months for trained soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines to be vaccinated here.

Degu did not say how many times the vaccine was sent to San Antonio’s military system. After the frontline workers get it, the vaccine goes to active staff with a national security role that the Pentagon considers important, and then DeGoes out of 150,000. “We move to the highest risk patients.” Military hospitals here treat regularly, including the private beneficiaries of the system.

Medical officer Major Andrew Gausepol received his first shot at Wilford Hall on Monday.

Gausepohl, medical director of the 59th Medical Wing’s Family Emergency Center, watched and applauded a crowd of about 50 when the needle entered.

“It was clearly an honor to be in the first line,” he said. “It wasn’t for me. It was for my patient, it was for the patient that I could see now, so I don’t have to worry about spreading the disease.”