4 DECEMBER 24, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
Photo courtesy of the mayor’s offi ce
Elmhurst Hospital begins vaccine distribution
BY JACOB KAYE
JKAYE@SCHNEPSMEDIA.COM
@QNS
Several days aft er the fi rst COVID-
19 vaccine outside of a clinical
trail was administered in the
United States, New York City’s public
hospital system began inoculating
health care workers in Elmhurst on
Wednesday, Dec. 16.
Once the epicenter of the coronavirus
crisis in the country, Elmhurst
Hospital, which is part of the city’s
NYC Health + Hospital system, began
distributing Pfi zer’s COVID-19 vaccine
this week to frontline health care
workers, who continue to battle the
virus as the infection rate among city
residents surges.
“We’re here at Elmhurst Hospital,
a heroic place. A place where something
extraordinary happened,” said
Mayor Bill de Blasio, who gave remarks
prior to the fi rst distribution
of the vaccine in the public hospital
system. “Elmhurst Hospital has a lot
to be proud of. Queens has a lot to be
proud of.”
William Kelly, a service aid in the
hospital’s environmental services
department, and Veronica Delgado,
an emergency room lead physician
assistant, were the fi rst to be given the
vaccine, which was administered the
hospital’s interim CEO, Eric Wei, and
NYC Health Commissioner Dr. Dave
Chokshi.
NYC Health + Hospitals President
and CEO Mitchell Katz said the hospital
has set a goal to vaccinate their
staff of more than 4,200 within three
weeks. Katz added that all 11 public
hospitals have received the vaccine.
Delgado, a 65-year-old Astoria resident
who’s worked at the hospital for
more than 30 years, said the moment
felt like “that fi rst bit of sunlight in the
morning aft er a very long, dark, and
frightening night.”
“I feel very privileged to be one of the
fi rst to get the vaccine, I know there
are people that are more frontline
and more deserving so my message
to the mayor is that I hope everybody
can be vaccinated quickly,” Delgado
said. “My message to non-healthcare
providers is that everyone has to do
their own research and make their
own decisions but not to be afraid of
the vaccine — and not to get information
off of Facebook.”
Kelly, a 62-year-old Jamaica resident
who’s worked at the hospital for
more than 20 years, said he felt happy
and comfortable when getting the
vaccine.
“It’s like taking a fl u shot,” said Kelly.
“I worked all over the hospital for the
last four months that we had it. I got
through it, stayed strong and healthy.
But it was very rough for those fi rst
months. You see the faces, think about
them just laying there, suff ering.”
Kelly added that he hopes others
will take the vaccine too, so “we can
all get back together.”
The pair, who will need a second
dose of the vaccine in the coming
weeks, were led out of the hospital by
the mayor as their colleagues cheered
them on.
Wei said they have been prepping
and have multiple back-ups for the
freezers needed to store the Pfi zer
vaccine, which must be kept at a temperature
of -70°C.
“The supply is really being dictated
by what Pfi zer is able to create and
across the country, so we don’t know
until it comes through our door how
much we’re getting,” Wei said. “It’s
be appointment, and we’re starting
with those who are most likely to be
exposed to the virus, those who are
highest risk of having severe disease
and complications from the virus.”
Though the vaccine has brought a
dose a hope to a city burdened by the
pandemic for 10 months, a steady rise
in infections and a new round of shutdowns
has residents and city offi cials
worrying of a dark winter.
All of the city’s troubling metrics,
including the positive COVID-19
testing rate, hospitalizations, cases
and deaths, have seen increases in
the past month.
Queens Borough President Donovan
Richards attended the event,
which he said “we’ve all been waiting
for.”
“We’re all are going to have a job
ahead of us and that’s to make sure
that the public understands that they
should be confident in taking the
vaccine,” said Richards. “I know that
there’s a lot of apprehension when it
comes to the history in vaccination,
especially when it comes to communities
of color, but this is not an
experimentation, this is to ensure that
we can all, like Kelly said, get back
together and get back to some level of
normalcy and try to move forward
from such a dark time.”
Richards, who visited Elmhurst
Hospital to meet with staff members
a few days prior, said he’s been in talks
with the mayor to ensure Queens
is prioritized in the vaccination’s
distribution.
“I feel very good on the equity lens
being placed on the vaccination of
communities across Queens,” he
said.
In Queens, there were nearly 700
confi rmed cases of COVID-19 – calculated
on a seven-day average – at the
beginning of this week.
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