Nurse Annabelle Jimenez, congratulates nurse Sandra Lindsay after she is
inoculated with the COVID-19 vaccine, at Northwell Health at Long Island
Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, New York, U.S., Dec. 14, 2020.
Mark Lennihan/Pool via REUTERS
Caribbean Life, DECEMBER 18-24, 2020 3
By Nelson A. King
Brooklyn Borough President Eric
Adams on Friday rang in the holidays
with his annual Christmas tree lighting
ceremony at Brooklyn Borough Hall.
Adams was joined by representatives
from the New York City Department of
Parks and Recreation and representatives
from the sponsors of the tree lighting,
which included CHC of Brooklyn
Alumni Chapter, Phi Alpha Delta Law
Fraternity, International, One Brooklyn
Fund, Ponce Bank, National Grid, Target
and Thrivent.
All public health guidelines were
observed during the tree lighting,
including required face coverings for all
participants and social distancing.
In the spirit of the holiday season,
Adams said he will be distributing more
than 800 pairs of pajamas and more
than 2,500 books to children in shelters
across the borough.
The funding for the pajamas and
books came courtesy of the aforementioned
sponsors of this year’s event.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the
shelters will be able to pick up the books
and pajamas from Brooklyn Borough
Hall.
“We gather this year amid an unprecedented
holiday season, as our city and
country continue to contend with intersecting
public health, economic, and
racial injustice crises,” Adams said.
“The lighting of the tree at Brooklyn
Borough Hall, a tradition dating back
to the beginning of my tenure as borough
president, represents a hope for a
brighter new year and a light at the end
of this tunnel,” he added. “Throughout
the unimaginable challenges we
have faced throughout this turbulent
year, we have remained united as ‘One
Brooklyn’, looking out for one another,
mourning our collective losses and performing
everyday acts of heroism for
our neighbors.”
By Nelson A. King
The group, Brooklyn Rising, says
Brooklyn’s first New Year’s Eve ball will
come to life on Thursday in a lighting
ceremony attended by local politicians
and New York’s elites.
Brooklyn Rising founder, James “Jay”
Hill said “the shimmering ball will light
up downtown Brooklyn like fireworks
and bring some much-needed joy to
residents.”
Hill said the event has been nearly
10 years in the making, and that the
Brooklyn Rising initiative worked tirelessly
with Brooklyn Borough Hall’s
help to “bring to life the vision of the
city’s first New Year’s Eve Ball for the
countdown to 2021.”
But Hill said “this isn’t going to be a
traditional New Year’s Eve.
“Unlike Times Square’s dropping of
a glittering orb, Brooklyn Rising’s Ball
will rise and shine bright like a diamond
throughout New York,” he said.
“Brooklyn Rising is setting new trends
by putting together something special,
and it all starts with a celestial light
show for the ages.
“For the last seven years, I have tried
to do this event every year and was
unsuccessful with doing it,” Hill added.
“This year, it’s just different because
we are gonna do it, even with the challenges
that the world is going through,
which makes it even more significant.
“2020 has been a tumultuous year
for Brooklyn residents, so a grand occasion
of bright lights and warm smiles
is needed,” he continued. “The efforts
of Brooklyn Rising show that plenty is
still possible even in the face of complex
challenges. The ball will represent a
symbol of hope and unity, not just for
Brooklyn but also for all who view it.”
Hill said the lighting is “simply a prelude
for the things to come as Brooklyn
Rising put together a series of events to
commemorate this fantastic addition to
the borough.”
From Dec. 18 to 21, he said local
artists are invited to put their creative
touch with murals painted on the ball’s
platform.
Then, on Dec. 31, Brooklyn Rising
will hold a virtual ceremony for the New
Year’s Eve countdown.
“The Brooklyn New Year’s Eve Ball
symbolizes a strong message that is a
tribute to those lost to the COVID-19
pandemic and the first responders on
the front line,” Hill said, adding that
the Ball will serve as support for “global
unity and the Black Lives Matter Movement.”
The Ball will be in place for the public
to take pictures from Dec. 17 to 27.
By Jonathan Allen & Gabriella
Borter
NEW YORK (Reuters) – A New York
City intensive care unit nurse on Monday
became the first person in the
United States to receive a coronavirus
vaccine, saying she felt “healing is coming,”
as the nation’s COVID–19 death
toll crossed a staggering 300,000 lives
lost.
Sandra Lindsay, who has treated
some of the sickest COVID–19 patients
for months, was inoculated at Long
Island Jewish Medical Center in the
New York City borough of Queens, an
early epicenter of the country’s coronavirus
outbreak, receiving applause on
a livestream with New York Governor
Andrew Cuomo.
“It didn’t feel any different from taking
any other vaccine,” Lindsay said. “I
feel hopeful today, relieved. I feel like
healing is coming. I hope this marks
the beginning of the end of a very painful
time in our history.
“I want to instill public confidence
that the vaccine is safe,” she added.
“This is what heroes look like,”
Cuomo wrote in the caption of a photo
of Lindsay, wearing a mask and staring
resolutely ahead, that he posted on
Twitter.
Similar scenes played out at select
hospitals in other cities, including Los
Angeles, where California Governor
Gavin Newsom applauded as a Kaiser
Permanente emergency room nurse
rolled up her sleeve for a needle jab on
live television.
“It’s been an incredible morning.
It’s historic,” said Dr. Leonardo Seoane
after he received a shot at Ochsner
Medical Center in New Orleans, where
he has led some of the clinical trials
that found the vaccine 95% effective in
preventing COVID–19 illness.
The made-for-TV events – the first
U.S. coronavirus immunizations outside
of clinical trials – were part of
a broad campaign by public health
authorities and political leaders to reassure
Americans of the vaccine‘s safety
as they launched a national immunization
program of unprecedented scope.
Developed by Pfizer Inc and German
partner BioNTech SE, the vaccine,
given as two doses three weeks apart,
won U.S. emergency-use authorization
on Friday.
By day’s end on Monday, vaccine
shipments had made it to nearly all
of the 145 U.S. distribution sites preselected
to receive the initial batch of
doses, with a number of major hospital
systems launching immunizations
immediately.
“This is a race against time,” said
Greg Adams, chairman and CEO of the
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc.
Borough President Eric Adams
(center) rings in holidays with
annual Christmas tree lighting
at Brooklyn Borough Hall.Ryan
Lynch/Brooklyn BPO’s Offi ce
First Americans vaccinated
The Ball is dropping in Brooklyn
Adams
rings in
holidays