A Historic Day- First COVID-19 Vaccinations

On the day after Vanderburgh County set a record for COVID-19 deaths, health care workers are starting the long path back for our community by sticking needles in arms and administering the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

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Deaconess Health System President Dr. James Porter tried to put the event in perspective as physicians, nurses and other health care workers were getting the first doses of the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine early Wednesday. Porter says he was on hand when the vaccine arrived a day earlier.

“To know that in that box was the vaccine  that can start helping people be immune and not even being infected in the first place with this terrible virus that we’ve all been afflicted with was just- it was almost overwhelming," Porter said. "It was a very exciting day.”

The hospital will get about two thousand doses of the vaccine this week. The Indiana State Department of Health has said they expect to have frontline health care workers who want to receive the vaccine completed sometime in January.  

Gina Huhnke, M.D., the medical director for emergency services at Deaconess Health System, was second in line to get the first dose of the vaccine. She’ll get another dose in about three weeks. Huhnke says while they’re excited to get the vaccine, after leaving here, they’re headed right back to their hospital units where COVID-19 patients are dying in record numbers.

“In the emergency department, we are struggling every day with staffing, because staff are sick or they’ve been exposed and have to be quarantined." Huhnke said, "So, we really have to protect ourselves, so we can be there for everybody who needs us.”

Craig Maier is a registered nurse and team leader of the neuro-medical intensive care unit, which is currently the COVID ICU at Deaconess Midtown. Maier reflected on what the pandemic has meant for him professionally.

"It's been hard. We've stuck together as a team. Deaconess has supported us and gotten us the things we need to care for these patients as best as we can," Maier said, "I think this vaccine is just the next big step in getting back to normal."