A momentous day in American history.
Five frontline medical workers from three hospitals across Chicago were the first Illinois citizens to receive a vaccine against COVID-19 this morning. The historic event took place at Loretto hospital in Chicago’s hard-hit Austin neighborhood. The first of the five to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was Dr. Marina Del Rios, an emergency physician from the University of Illinois health system.
Chicago’s first vaccinations happened at a hospital situated in a predominantly black neighborhood within a zip code that has among the highest COVID-19 death rates in the city. pic.twitter.com/C7mjDiDUng
— Omar Jimenez (@OmarJimenez) December 15, 2020
Loretto hospital was also the first community-based COVID-19 testing site in Chicago’s West Side. It will reportedly now be the site of vaccine trials for future potential vaccines outside of Pfizer BioNTech’s and Moderna’s.
Dr. Allison Arwady and Mayor Lori Lightfoot led a small ceremony during which Arwady expressed that they had many volunteers step forward to be the first to be vaccinated. She explained that the ceremony was overseeing specifically five front line health workers because each vile contains five doses. Before the doses were administered, Arwady emphasized the vaccine’s safety and how it went through rigorous testing for safety and effectiveness before going through a series of reviews and approvals by the FDA and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), among others.
These Are the First People Who Got the Coronavirus Vaccine in Chicago https://t.co/EvNrq7MwMj pic.twitter.com/XOFueJCEov
— NBC Chicago (@nbcchicago) December 15, 2020
“What we just witnessed is history in the making,” Mayor Lori Lightfoot said.
The historic event can be viewed below:
WATCH LIVE: The first Chicagoans receive the COVID-19 vaccine. https://t.co/bHWDBdpY3q
— CDPH | Chicago Department of Public Health (@ChiPublicHealth) December 15, 2020
[Image from Twitter / @ChiPublicHealth]