By DOUGLAS GRAVES

Special to The Press

Registered Nurse Chantal Branco received Lehigh Valley’s first COVID-19 vaccine shot Dec. 17 in a short, but emotional ceremony at Lehigh Valley Hospital, Salisbury Township.

Branco hoisted a sleeve of her blue medical uniform as Nurse Lindsay Dougherty administered the vaccine.

Branco is the managing director of one of LVHN’s intensive care units.

She received the vaccine under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Emergency Use Authorization that establishes precedence as to who will receive the COVID-19 vaccine first.

The event was carried live over LVHN’s Facebook page.

Branco was asked what getting the vaccine means to her,

“It’s an exciting moment both for me and everyone who has worked so hard to get this vaccine ready for use,” she said. “It’s very humbling, I’m very honored.

“I’ve been here 10 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Dr. Joseph L. Yozviak who was conducting the interview then addressed Branco.

“What is it like for you and your colleagues to be on the front lines?” he asked.

“Well, first, it’s an honor to be a nurse and first defender especially now,” Branco said. “We’ve never seen anything like it.

“It brought us together in ways I was never suspecting.

“Hopefully, we move forward with proper social distancing and washing hands and somehow get back to normal.”

Yozviak asked Branco what her hope was.

“I hope for increased awareness and more education for people to understand how important [unintelligible] is and the impact that it has had on health care and the community.”

Yozviak then addressed the public watching the livestream.

“The vaccine doesn’t mean the pandemic is over,” Yozviak said. “After people receive their vaccination, they should still take steps to reduce COVID-19 transmission such as social distancing, wearing a mask and hand washing.”

“How can we trust that the vaccine is safe after the clinical trial moved so quickly?” asked an off-camera moderator.

“I think we all recognize the trial has moved fast,” Yozviak replied.

“And that’s all due to the unprecedented emergency we’re all in with this pandemic.

“I want everyone to know everything we were supposed to do in any standard medical trial was still done throughout the course of these clinical trials.

“We’re going to following people for another two years after the second vaccine dose and continue to gather information to demonstrate the ongoing safety and the effectiveness of the vaccine.”

Yozviak said major retail pharmacies would be working with long-term care facilities to administer the vaccine to residents.

“Because we are not certain how long immunity lasts after an episode of disease with COVID-19, it is going to be recommended people who had COVID-19 previously get immunized,” he said,

LVHN received the vaccine earlier on Dec. 17 according to information provided by hospital authorities who said,

“We will be vaccinating our front-line colleagues immediately.”

A spokesperson for the health care nonprofit said LVHN was a clinical trial site for the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

The shipment of vaccine received on Dec. 17 at LVHN contained enough vaccinations for 975 LVHN personnel to receive their first of two needed doses.

LVHN has, according to information released, “created a tier-based approach to vaccinate colleagues who work in roles with a high risk for exposure to the [COVID-19] virus.”

Yozviak is an infectious disease and internal medicine doctor at LVHN who officiated at the important milestone event in the effort to find a vaccine for the pandemic which, as of Dec. 17, has directly or indirectly killed 434 Lehigh County residents, 370 Northampton County residents, 13,200 Pennsylvania residents and 308,000 U.S. citizens this past year.

The distribution plan for the subsequent resupplies of the vaccine was provided by the National Academy of Medicine, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and Pennsylvania’s Department of Health.

One set of priorities is for health care workers, emergency medical services workers, first responders and residents and staff of nursing homes or congregate care facilities.

They will receive the vaccine first.