COVID-19 vaccinations begin in Wichita with Ascension Via Christi nurse, doctor
Some Wichita nurses and doctors got Wichita’s first shots of the newly approved coronavirus vaccine on Monday, but cautioned that the end of the COVID-19 pandemic is still a long way off.
The first to get the shots are workers providing direct care to COVID patients in the Ascension Via Christi hospital system.
On Monday morning, Wesley Medical Center was awaiting its supply of the new vaccine, expected to arrive later in the day or early Tuesday, hospital spokesman Dave Stewart said.
Kristen Garrett, a registered nurse in the Medical Intensive Care Unit at Ascension’s St. Francis Hospital, was the first to receive the vaccine.
ICU nurses have been especially impacted by the disease.
With family barred from ICUs because of the highly contagious nature of the coronavirus, nurses in protective gear are often the only one who can be with dying patients, holding their hand so they can have at least some measure of human contact as they pass.
“It’s really hard to know you’re the last person to see someone’s loved one take their last breath,” Garrett said.
Garrett cautioned that the administration of the vaccine to her and others is just the beginning of the end of the pandemic, advising people to continue precautions to minimize the spreading of the disease until everybody can get their shot.
“I do worry that with the vaccine coming out, people will think it’s over,” she said. “It’s not.”
Dr. Maggie Hagan, an infectious disease specialist and medical director at the hospital, got the second shot.
“I’m just thrilled to be able to get the vaccine today,” she said. “It’s been a long nine months I’ve been waiting for this day . . . It’s a real victory for us.”
While health workers have been hailed as heroes, so are the researchers and laboratory workers who developed the vaccine — and volunteers who acted as test subjects while it was in the experimental stages, she said.
“Today’s the day to thank your scientist friends for all they do for us,” she said.
Due to limited supplies, the vaccine will be administered in a priority-tiered format over the next several months, with those at the highest risk of contracting or dying of the virus getting first dibs.
The first shipments of vaccine have been largely earmarked for two groups at extraordinary risk, including:
▪ Doctors, nurses and other health-care workers who provide direct care and treatment to COVID-infected patients in hospitals, to reduce the chances of them contracting and spreading the disease.
▪ Nursing home and long-term care facility workers and residents. Coronavirus spreads quickly in the confined setting of care homes and the elderly are at far and away the greatest risk of dying if they catch the disease. Of the 2,072 COVID deaths documented in Kansas as of Friday, 1,764 were persons 65 or older.
Kansas has been allocated 150,000 doses in this initial shipment, according to the office of Gov. Laura Kelly. It takes two doses, three weeks apart, to reach the 90-plus percentage of protection estimated by manufacturers.
Those being vaccinated now will get their second shot from follow-up shipments expected to arrive on a weekly basis.
So far, the only vaccine approved for widespread distribution is one developed and manufactured by the Pfizer pharmaceutical company.
The FDA granted Pfizer an emergency use authorization on Friday, the final hurdle to allow general vaccination to begin.
The FDA review “included input from independent scientific and public health experts and a thorough evaluation by the agency’s career scientists to ensure this vaccine met FDA’s rigorous, scientific standards for safety, effectiveness, and manufacturing quality needed to support emergency use authorization,” said a statement from FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn.
This story was originally published December 14, 2020 at 12:29 PM.
