NewYork-Presbyterian staffer
from the Bronx vaccinates parents
BY JASON COHEN
Bronx resident Maliha Tabassum
grew up in Bangladesh
and had no idea what a
pharmacist was, yet today she
has been vaccinating many
people against COVID-19 including
her parents.
Tabassum, of Norwood, a
pharmacy intern at New York-
Presbyterian, immigrated to
the United States in 2011.
“When my parents (Tarek
Ahmad and Laila Khanam)
were able to get an appointment,
I was honored to give
them their shots,” she explained.
“There was real relief.
You could feel it.”
Tabassum knew her parents
were coming in that afternoon
in late March and had
vaccinated countless patients
that day alone, but had no idea
she would be the one to administer
the shots.
“I was waiting in the queue
and when my turn came, I
noticed the person who’d be
vaccinating me would be my
daughter,” Ahmad said.
Tabassum recalled that
when she fi rst moved here it
was a bit of a culture shock.
While her community has a
large Bengali population, the
rest of the Bronx was quite
different.
She was one of the few
Southeast Asian students in
her school and fi nding places
that served Halal meat was a
challenge as well.
“In the beginning I was really
scared,” she said.
Fortunately, her aunt, Lila
Shamim, was living in Norwood
and helped with the
transition. Additionally, a
high school history teacher,
Mr. Cushing, made her feel
welcome as well.
But everything changed
when she went to a local CVS
looking for medicine for her
brother who has cerebral
palsy. The pharmacist overheard
she and her dad speaking
in Bengali and quickly
chimed in to help, as she was
Bengali.
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After chatting with her, Tabassum
applied for a job and
the rest is history. She met
the other pharmacists and
soon learned that a profession
which she had never heard of
was what she wanted to do.
In the close knit Bengali
community in Norwood, many
people began to praise Tabassum
for her work at CVS.
“Since we live in the neighborhood
everyone knows me
and my family,” she explained.
“When we go the mosque everyone
says your daughter
helped me.”
Tabassum graduated from
The City College of New York
with bachelors in biology and
minor in chemistry and is a
fi fth year pharmacy student
at Long Island University in
Brooklyn.
She has been actively involved
in the American Pharmacists
Association – Academy
of Student Pharmacists
(APhA-ASP) and is its chapter
president. Additionally, she is
involved in the Pharmacists
Society of the State of New
York and Bangladeshi American
Pharmacist Association.
In 2020, she was the recipient
of the Mary Munson Runge
Scholarship, established in
honor of a pioneer for women
in pharmacy.
Tabassum explained that
this past year has been very
hard. She lost family members
to COVID-19 and her parents
and brother have pre-existing
conditions, so she was worried
about getting them sick.
“This is the time when you
can tell what pharmacists can
do,” she explained. “A lot of
people think we only dispense
pills.”
When the pandemic arrived
she never imagined it
would cause so much devastation,
but she stepped up to the
plate and did her job. Staying
home wasn’t an option.
According to Tabassum,
vaccinating people the past
few months has been extremely
rewarding.
“I’m making some sort of
impact on someone’s life,” she
said. “It’s history and I’m glad
I got to be a part of this. After
I vaccinated everyone the patients
are like thank you for
doing this.”
Maliha Tabassum vaccinates her
dad Tarek Ahmad File photo
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