In New York…..
An intensive care nurse received her shot at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, with her Governor Andrew Cuomo looking on by video….
Donald Trump announced the event on twitter….
The first shot was given in the American mass vaccination campaign on Monday morning, opening a new chapter in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more people in the United States than in any other country.
Shortly after 9 a.m. on Monday, the first vaccination took place in Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens. The pandemic has scarred New York State profoundly, leaving more than 35,000 people dead and severely weakening the economy.
“I believe this is the weapon that will end the war,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said at a news conference Monday morning, shortly before the shot was given to Sandra Lindsay, an intensive-care nurse. State officials said the shot was the first to be given outside of a vaccine trial in the United States.
Ms. Lindsay, who has treated patients throughout the pandemic, said that she hoped her public vaccination would instill confidence in New Yorkers that the shots were safe.
“I feel like healing is coming,” she said. “I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history.”
President Trump posted on Twitter: “First Vaccine Administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!”
The vaccinations started after the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine on Friday night, and as the U.S. coronavirus death toll approaches 300,000, with a steady surge in new cases daily.
On Sunday, trucks and cargo planes packed with the first of nearly three million doses of coronavirus vaccine had fanned out across the country, as hospitals in all 50 states rushed to set up injection sites and their anxious workers tracked each shipment hour by hour. But the rollout is less centralized in the United States than in other countries that are racing to distribute it.
Across the country, according to Gen. Gustave F. Perna, the chief operating officer of the federal effort to develop a vaccine, 145 sites are set to receive the vaccine on Monday, 425 on Tuesday and 66 on Wednesday….
“I think we could be seeing that by late February going into March,” Azar said when asked on the “Today Show” when everyone, not just those in high risk groups such as health care workers or the elderly, can walk into their local pharmacy and get the vaccine.
With Pfizer’s vaccine already beginning its rollout, the HHS noted that there would be “significant additional supplies” if Johnson and Johnson or AstraZeneca get their vaccines approved in January.
“Late February in the March time period, I think you’ll start seeing more like a flu vaccination campaign, people going into their Kroger, their CVS, their Walgreens,” he said….
NYC could face ‘full shutdown’ beyond indoor dining, de Blasio warns…
As vaccines began being put into arms in New York City and indoor dining was shut down again Monday, Mayor Bill de Blasio warned that additional restrictions could be coming — potentially including a return to a full shutdown.
“There’s the potential of having to do a full pause, a full shutdown, in the coming weeks, because we can’t let this kind of momentum go,” de Blasio said on CNN when asked about comments made by Gov. Andrew Cuomo last week, in which the state’s top executive said a fuller shutdown could be in the offing this winter….
More…
(The NYC Mayor gets ahead of himself again….Such a move is NOT up to him….But IS Gov Cuomo’s call and Cuomo isn’t ready for that….)
Germany and Netherlands will be doing virus shutdowns for the holidays….