Five health care workers at San Francisco General Hospital rolled up their sleeves Tuesday morning to get the COVID-19 vaccine, becoming the first in the Bay Area to receive protection against the deadly virus.
The group, which included two doctors, two nurses and a radiology technician, have all worked on the front lines for months, treating critically ill coronavirus patients.
“This is an incredible moment of hope for the 6,000 people who work here who have been battling this pandemic since the end of February,” said Dr. Susan Ehrlich, CEO of SFGH.
Dr. Antonio Gomez, medical director of critical care services at the hospital, was first in line.
“To anyone out there who is having any reservations about taking the vaccine, please, it’s a safe – from the data we have available – way of protecting everybody,” he said.
Gomez said he was also taking the moment “to reflect back on what we’ve done and on the people we’ve lost, the effect this has had on our community, especially our community of Black and brown individuals who have suffered more throughout this pandemic.”
Phung Nguyen, an intensive care nurse, said she was “very honored and very excited” to be among the initial group of recipients. “I feel so relieved, because now I can go to work feeling that I am getting the protection I need so that I can continue doing the work that I am doing,” she said.
The five shots administered Tuesday come from the first tranche of 12,675 Pfizer vaccine doses San Francisco recently received from the state. That supply will be primarily reserved for front-line health care workers and residents of elder care facilities. The city says it expects to get another shipment of the vaccine next week, and every week after that, but anticipates it will still be many months before enough doses are available to distribute to the general public.
The news comes as the Bay Area experiences a surge of new COVID-19 cases, straining hospital capacity. Officials estimate the city could run out of ICU beds — which are already almost two-thirds full — by around Christmas if current trends continue.
“There will not be sufficient quantities of the vaccine to protect us as a community against this third surge,” said Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “So, it’s very important that people continue to wear the mask, socially distance, cancel holiday gatherings. This vaccine is a sign of hope, but we need to ensure that everybody in San Francisco is here for the vaccine.”