When anesthesiologist Anthony Fazzone performed the state’s first intubation for a Covid patient last March, it felt like “the beginning of something really dark,” he said.
On Wednesday, Fazzone was part of a sunnier Covid first: He was one of the initial group of 20 frontline health care workers to receive the Pfizer Covid vaccine at Gifford Medical Center.
“This is nothing but good news,” he said, beaming, as he sat in a beige conference room in the basement of the Randolph hospital. “This is a real triumph of science.”
The initial Covid vaccine roll-out was the first of what will be dozens of regular inoculation clinics that Gifford will offer for its staff, and ultimately, for Central Vermont residents. The hospital received 110 of the Pfizer vaccines on Tuesday, just four days after Pfizer got approval from the FDA. Staff were offered the first batch on Tuesday as a trial run and the remaining 90 were to be administered on Friday.
The event had an aura more reminiscent of a staff holiday party than a health clinic — likely attributable to the prevailing sense of optimism and the preponderance of ugly Christmas sweaters laden with bells and pompoms for the hospital’s “theme” day. Three dozen attendees cheered when a nurse gave the first vaccine of the day to Suzanne Burgos, a physician assistant hospitalist.
“I couldn’t even feel it. Painless,” Burgos declared. It was “momentous at the same time,” she added. “We’ve really been waiting for the vaccine to get here to get a handle on this pandemic.”
Gifford doesn’t currently have any patients hospitalized with Covid, but cases in the community have risen in recent weeks far above the spring case counts, which remained low. The ripple effects of the Washington County ice rink outbreak have spread to Orange County, peaking at 21 daily cases on Dec. 2.
“For health care workers, this has been a heck of a long year, people are exhausted,” said hospital CEO Dan Bennett, who attended the event in a light-up cow sweater. “They’re not only caring for people here, but they’re dealing with what everybody else in the community is dealing with as well in regard to the pandemic. I think this is going to be a big boost up for them,” he said of the vaccine.
Staff members described a rapid, and constantly evolving, planning process as the state and federal governments rolled out the massive immunization plan.
“There’s a little bit of an adrenaline rush going with just trying to get everything coordinated,” said Covid coordinator Monica Boyd.
By the time the U.S. Food and Drug Administration granted Pfizer an emergency use authorization for the vaccine last Friday, shipments were already on their way to Vermont from the company plant in Michigan. A batch of 1,950 vaccines were delivered to the University of Vermont Medical Center and the State Vaccine Depot on Monday, followed by a second delivery the following day.
A third batch sent to pharmacies will be administered to residents at long-term care facilities.
The first Vermonter, UVM Medical Center emergency room nurse Cindy Wamsganz, received the vaccine on Tuesday. And by the following day, they were being administered by hospitals across the state.
By next week, Gifford will receive a larger batch of vaccines, as many as 300 doses, said Chief Medical Officer Josh White, who received his shot while wearing a mask patterned with Dr. Anthony Fauci’s face. The FDA is expected to approve the Moderna vaccine soon, allowing for increased production.
(On Friday, Health Commissioner Mark Levine announced the state would be getting 20% fewer doses than expected next week, but would ultimately receive the full allocation. He also said health officials have been able to get an additional dose from each vial.)
Next week, the hospital will expand its vaccinations beyond its own workers to health care providers from other local organizations, including EMS workers, dentists, and home health providers.
White said about 60% of the hospital’s 600 workers, or about 350 people, have said they’d like to get the vaccine. He said he expected that the hospital would be able to start vaccinating essential workers by the end of January.
The event was over almost as quickly as it started. Two nurses, standing side by side, each pulled up the sleeves of the health care workers in line and administered the shots. Each got a card reminding them to return in three weeks for the booster shot.
As nurses and doctors sat for the required 15 minutes to monitor for reactions, they allowed themselves to imagine a post-pandemic world.
A nurse said she was looking forward to seeing her 94-year-old mother.
White, who put out grim press releases and YouTube videos warning Vermonters of the worst case scenarios to encourage mask-wearing and social distancing, offered an unrestrained positive outlook.
Within weeks, the death count will drop, as the most vulnerable get vaccines, he predicted. The national expense will go down, hospitals will be less overwhelmed. Next fall, he thought, kids can go back to school in person.
“It’s gonna be a different day,” he said.
In spite of the stress of the last several months, Fazzone praised Vermonters for coming together during the pandemic and keeping case counts low. “I saw more positive things come out of this pandemic than negative things,” he said.
Even so, he was looking forward to the end.
“I’m really pleased to get this vaccine,” he said, with a grin.
