A nurse from Queens working on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic became the first person in the United States to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine this week.
"I've been waiting for this day forever," Sandra Lindsay, an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, said, according to the New York Post.
"Working the front lines alongside my team, I saw a lot of pain, suffering and death," Lindsay told reporters after receiving the first dose on camera around 9:20 a.m. at the Queens hospital.
Lindsay said some of her relatives have died from the virus.
“Dark, that’s one way to describe it. Dark, painful — I felt like this day would never come, so today I feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel.”
Lindsay immigrated to the U.S. from Jamaica in the 1980s and later became the director of patient care service at the hospital.
“As a leader in the health system, I think it was very important for me to take the vaccine, to lead by example,” she said. “I wouldn’t ask my staff to do anything that I wouldn’t do myself.
“And for a minority community that is skeptical to take the vaccine, I want to let them know it’s safe to take— because the alternative is dark, it’s painful, it’s suffering and probably death.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he saw the vaccination by livestream.
“This vaccine is exciting because I believe this is the weapon that will end the war,” he said. “It is the beginning of the last chapter of the book, but now we just have to do it.”
He tweeted a photo of Lindsay, saying, “This is what heroes look like.”
President Donald Trump tweeted, “First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!”
First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2020
President-elect Joe Biden also tweeted, saying “Stay hopeful— brighter days lie ahead!”
Stay hopeful — brighter days lie ahead. https://t.co/rEY4b7TGBf
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 14, 2020
Related:
'There Is Hope on the Way,’ Surgeon General Jerome Adams Says of COVID-19 Vaccines
Photo courtesy: ©Getty Images/Manjurul
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.