DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- Nineteen hospitals in Texas received shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 Vaccine Tuesday. Four hospitals in North Texas began administering the first doses of the vaccine on front line workers.
Methodist Dallas Medical Center received a shipment of vaccine earlier this week. Doses were sent to Parkland, UT Southwestern and Texas Health Resources, which is the very first vaccines to land in Tarrant County.
Brad Sellers is the Medical Director of the Emergency Department of Methodist Dallas Medical Center, one of the first hospitals in the country to receive the vaccine. He described how he felt a day after getting the shot.
“I had no symptoms just a little soreness in my arm but when I woke up this morning it was pretty much gone and I didn’t have to take anymore Tylenol or Motrin. I’m doing great,” said Sellers
Perla Sanchez-Perez a Parkland Health Nurse in the Covid Unit said she now has peace of mind after getting the vaccine.
“I see what the disease does to our population and our community and to know that I’m able to get this vaccine means the world to me because I do have a family and I do want to be safe for them and still be able to provide care for the patients in our community,” said Sanchez-Perez.
Tonychris Nnaka is a critical care nurse in Parkland’s ICU. He said it feels like a dream to be one of the first to receive the vaccine.
“It’s very emotional, I am not scared, I am very confident in the vaccine. I know that it works. I’m just very privileged to receive it here at Parkland,” he said.
Parkland Staff said the vaccine is 95% effective and has a 0% chance in killing you.
“On one end you have a disease that can kill you maybe 1% of the time and you also have a vaccine that will kill you 0% of the time,” said Joseph Chang, MD, SVP and Chief Medical Officer of Parkland Health.
Chang encouraged everyone to get the vaccine once it’s more widely available. “This is the beginning of the end, this is our way out of this,” he said.