US set for first COVID-19 shots as shipments begin arriving

Hospital workers begin unloing precious frozen vials of COVID-19 vaccine Monday, with first vaccinations against a scourge that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans expected later in day.

“It feels like cavalry is arriving,” Robert C. Garrett, CEO of Hackensack Meridian Health, said as New Jersey’s largest health network awaited delivery.

Shots me by Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech are first authorized for emergency use by Food and Drug ministration -- beginning what will become largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. Several or countries also have OK'd vaccine, including U.K. , which started vaccinating last week.

For health workers who, along with nursing home residents, will be first in line for vaccination, hope is tempered by grief and sheer exhaustion of months spent battling a coronavirus that still is surging in U.S. and around world.

“This is mile 24 of a marathon. People are fatigued. But we also recognize that this end is in sight,” said Dr. Chris Dale of Swedish Health Services in Seattle.

Packed in dry ice to stay at ultra-frozen temperatures, first of nearly 3 million doses being shipped in staggered batches this week me ir way by truck and by plane around country Sunday from Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, Michigan, factory. Once y arrive at distribution centers, each state directs where doses go next.

Some hospitals across country spent weekend tracking ir packs, refreshing FedEx and UPS websites for clues.

More of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will arrive each week. And later this week, FDA will decide wher to green light world’s second rigorously studied COVID-19 vaccine, me by Moderna Inc.

w hurdle is to rapidly get vaccine into arms of millions, t just doctors and nurses but or at-risk health workers such as janitors and food handlers — and n deliver a second dose three weeks later.

“We’re also in middle of a surge, and it’s holidays, and our health care workers have been working at an extraordinary pace,” said Sue Mashni, chief pharmacy officer at Mount Sinai Health System in New York City.

Plus, shots can cause temporary fever, fatigue and aches as y rev up people's immune systems, forcing hospitals to stagger employee vaccinations.

A wary public will be watching closely to see wher health workers embrace vaccination. Just half of Americans say y want to get vaccinated, while about a quarter don’t and rest are unsure, according to a recent poll by Associated Press-RC Center for Public Health Research.

FDA, considered world’s most strict medical regulator, said Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine appears safe and strongly protective -- and laid out data behind it in a daylong public meeting last week for scientists and consumers alike to see.

“Please people, when you look back in a year and you say to yourself, ‘Did I do right thing?’ I hope you’ll be able to say, ‘Yes, because I looked at evidence,’” Dr. Francis Collins, director of National Institutes of Health, said Sunday on NBC’s Meet Press. “People are dying right w. How could you possibly say, ‘Let’s wait and see.’”

Still, emergency use means vaccine was cleared for widespre use before a final study in nearly 44,000 people is complete -- and that research is continuing to try to answer ditional questions. While effective against COVID-19 illness, it’s t yet clear if vaccination will stop symptomless spre that accounts for half of all cases.

shots still must be studied in children, and during pregnancy. But American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists said late Sunday that vaccination should t be withheld from pregnant women who orwise would qualify.

While vaccine was determined to be safe, regulators in U.K. are investigating several severe allergic reactions. FDA’s instructions tell providers t to give it to those with a kwn history of severe allergic reactions to any of its ingredients.

(Im Credit: AP)