Thousands of YNHHS employees and medical staff get vaccinated to crush COVID
Just hours after the first doses arrived, YNHHS vaccinated its first five people during a press conference: Jonathan Siner, MD, medical director, YNHH Medical ICU; Katherine-Kay Husler, RN, MICU; Mackenzie Kelley, RN, Emergency Department; Terry Naser, Environmental Services; and Onyema Ogbuagu, MBBCh, YNHH Infectious Diseases, and principal investigator, Pfizer COVID-19 trial, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation.
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Yale New Haven Health is closing in on a fast-moving enemy, as thousands of employees and medical staff members receive their first doses of COVID-19 vaccine.
YNHHS has received significant quantities of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and continues to vaccinate employees in various patient-facing roles. The health system will work to vaccinate employees in non patient-facing roles once patient-facing employees and members of the medical staffs have been vaccinated.
“This vaccine will allow us to fight back,” YNHH President Keith Churchwell, MD, said at a Dec. 15 press conference announcing the health system’s first COVID vaccinations.
Information on the vaccines and YNHHS’ vaccination program is in the online COVID-19 Vaccine Information Center, on the employee intranet.
Key points to remember:
- The vaccine is safe and effective.
- You cannot get COVID-19 from the vaccine, since it does not contain any virus.
- Vaccination is voluntary, but YNHHS views it as critical to helping care for our patients and the community.
- Even after vaccination, staff should continue to wear masks, maintain social distancing and perform hand hygiene.
As with other COVID-related efforts, procuring, storing, preparing and distributing the vaccine has involved many people in different departments and roles. Thank you to everyone supporting these efforts, and to those who have been, and will be, vaccinated.
