UPMC administers 1st covid-19 vaccines in Pittsburgh

Five UPMC employees received Pittsburgh’s first doses of the covid-19 vaccine Monday, making tangible the long-awaited light at the end of the tunnel for a pandemic that has spared no state in its deadly waves.

The employees — a doctor, two nurses, a transporter and an environmental services supervisor — received the vaccine in a live-streamed event, getting the first of two doses for thousands to see.

Dr. Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, 42, an emergency medicine physician and assistant director of Pittsburgh’s EMS, said she wanted to do this to set an example. She noted the African-American community has been particularly ravaged by the virus.

“I wanted to share with my community that it is OK — that this vaccine is the thing to do to keep us safe, to keep us healthy and to keep us alive,” she said.

She said she wants to protect her family — her two young daughters, her husband, her parents in Boston — along with the community.

“I wanted to set that example not only for my family but for my community as well,” she said.

The first doses of the vaccine — about 975 of them — arrived at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh shortly after 9 a.m. Monday, a day after the first shipments left Michigan following approval by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“I think we’re starting to see the beginning of the end,” said Dr. Graham Snyder, UPMC’s medical director of infection prevention and hospital epidemiology.

Tami Minnier, UPMC’s chief quality officer, administered the vaccines. The vaccination process took mere seconds, with clean-up procedures between recipients taking longer than the shots themselves.

“These employees are my personal heroes,” said Minnier, a nurse for more than 40 years. “Over the last nearly 10 months, they have worked tirelessly at the frontline, taking care of our communities.”

She called the vaccinations a momentous occasion, one she likened to when Pittsburgh’s Dr. Jonas Salk administered the first polio vaccinations in April 1955.

“Dr. Jonas Salk took some of these very same steps,” she said, “and we all know the benefit that humanity has seen because of that.”

UPMC prioritized vaccine recipients internally in much the same way federal and state agencies have suggested the population as a whole be prioritized, Snyder said.

Those priorities, he said, are aimed at maintaining the most critical portions of the health system’s workforce, as well as those health care workers who “are most likely to be part of transmission.” Employees who are otherwise particularly vulnerable, such as those with underlying conditions, also are part of the prioritization.

“We have built a prioritization scheme that takes into consideration those values and starts where the vaccine will have the most impact,” Snyder said.

The health care system plans to provide the vaccine to all frontline workers who want to receive it by the end of January.

Other employees who received the vaccine were Charmaine Pykosh, 67, an advanced nurse practitioner at UPMC Presbyterian; Christian Schott, 36, a new father and ICU nurse at UPMC Passavant; Ja’Ray Gamble, 29, a transporter at UPMC Mercy; and Manevone ‘Manny’ Philavong, 46, an environmental services supervisor at UPMC Passavant.

“I love what I do,” Gamble said. “I love being part of my family’s lives and my patients’ lives. For me, I feel (getting the vaccine) is necessary to do what I have to do to maintain my position.”

In so many things, he said, staying 6 feet away isn’t possible.

“Sometimes we need to get close to other people to give them care or whatever it requires — a hug from our loved ones or care for our patients,” he said.

Pykosh said she couldn’t sleep Sunday night, her heart pounding at the thought of receiving the vaccine Monday morning. She gave a thumbs up as she received the shot. Philavong, who helps clean covid rooms every day, said the vaccine brings a level of comfort.

“It just puts me at ease knowing I have an extra layer of protection versus the (personal protective equipment) we wear,” he said. “That shot really puts my mind at ease a little bit more.”