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First Americans Receive Coronavirus Vaccine as U.S. COVID-19 Deaths Top 300,000

HeadlineDec 15, 2020

The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 topped 300,000 Monday, as the first Americans were vaccinated outside of a clinical setting. In Queens, New York, the former epicenter of the pandemic, intensive care unit director and critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay was first in line for an injection of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine. Dr. Michelle Chester administered the inoculation. Both women are African American. Lindsay said afterward she hoped to set an example for other African Americans who might be skeptical of the vaccine, based on the U.S.’s sordid history of medical experimentation on Black people.

Sandra Lindsay: “It was an emotional experience. Working on the frontlines alongside my team, I saw a lot of pain, hurt, suffering, death, and so I felt a huge sense of relief after I got the vaccine. I was not nervous, because, as I’ve mentioned before, I trust the science. So I had no hesitation when I was asked if I would take the vaccine.”

The first injections came as the U.S. recorded over 200,000 new cases and nearly 1,700 deaths Monday. In California, intensive care units across the state are at — or near — capacity, with no ICU beds available across much of the San Joaquin Valley. Los Angeles has shattered records for new COVID-19 cases in recent days. Public health experts warn the worst could be yet to come, with models predicting an average of more than 3,000 daily deaths across the U.S. in the coming weeks.

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