By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org
At 6 a.m. today, Metro Health – University of Michigan Health began to vaccinate its employees with the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19.
“This vaccine will provide much-needed protection for our employees , who serve on behalf of our community on the front lines of the pandemic,” said Metro Health – University of Michigan Health President and CEO Dr. Peter Hahn. “This is a breakthrough moment. This is how we start to turn the tide in our long battle with COVID-19.”
One of the first Metro Health staff to be vaccinated, Dr. Gabriel Pedraza, director of critical care at Metro Health, agreed with Hahn.
“I am going to fee a lot more comfortable treating my patients, my COVID patients,” Pedraza. Pedraza said he trusts the Center for Disease Control and knows that the Federal Drug and Food Administration would not have approved something that would put people at risk.
“Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation out there,” Pedraza said. “I have looked at some of the data. I trust the CDC. I trust the FDA. They are not going to release an unsafe vaccine.
“This is a big moment for our country and for us and I really highly recommend that we all get vaccinated. I did. I do what I preach and I think it is very important that we all do that. I recommend that everyone can, get vaccinated.”
The Pfizer vaccine was the first to be approved by the FDA on Dec. 11. Shipments of the vaccine, which is made in Kalamazoo, started leaving the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Airport on Monday. The vaccine arrived at Wyoming’s Metro Health – University of Michigan Health on Thursday.
“This generation’s greatest minds have been working tirelessly on vaccines from almost the moment the pandemic began,” he said. “Soon we will have to do our part, by being vaccinated as soon as the vaccine is available to each of us.”
Hahn praised the historic scientific effort and rigorous evaluation that made a vaccine available this year.
Metro Health’s initial shipment was 975 doses, with more anticipated on a regular cadence over the weeks to come. Metro Health’s Human Resources team collected input from its own Infection Prevention experts and clinical leaders, along with guidance from the CDC, to develop tiers of vaccine distribution based on risk of exposure and role in daily operations.
“As vaccine supplies grow, we look forward to extending the vaccine’s protection beyond our walls by following the guidance of public health experts,” Hahn said. Hahn and other leaders plan to receive the vaccine as soon as they meet the distribution criteria.
“As an ICU physician and healthcare leader, I will urge everyone to do the same,” he said.
