COVID-19 vaccination begins in both USA & Canada!
Galatta | Dec 15, 2020, 04:07 pm
After being at sea for months against the COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus, we have now finally gotten some effective vaccines to fight back. The Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccines have proven to be 95% effective in the all-important Phase 3 clinical trials. Pfizer almost immediately applied for Emergency Use Authorisation of their vaccine in Britain, Bahrain, the USA, Canada and India. Britain immediately approved the emergency use and became the first Western country to do so. The vaccinations have begun for Britons and has been happening for quite some time now. India has placed Pfizer's request before a panel of experts, who are checking it.
The USA became the second nation to approve the Emergency Use of Pfizer's vaccine, after the FDA approved of it and Donald Trump had tweeted that the vaccines would begin rolling out for public use, within the next 24 hours itself. Now, we hear that the vaccines have begun rolling out and the selected people have begun to receive their first doses. Sandra Lindsay, a nurse working at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center, became the first person to be inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine, in the USA. She was administered this vaccine dose by Dr. Michelle Chester, in the Queens Borough of New York. Following this vaccination, Donald Trump tweeted, "First vaccine administered. Congratulations USA! Congratulations WORLD!"
Almost at the same time, Canada also approved the Emergency Use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine and the first people to receive it were 5 frontline workers from Ontario, at a Toronto hospital. Personal Support worker Anita Quidangen, who worked all throughout the COVID-19 Pandemic at the Rekai Centre Nursing Home in Toronto, became the first Canadian to receive the vaccine dose. Dr. Kevin Smith, the President and CEO of Toronto's University Health Network, said, "This is a victory day for science. Here were are today, breaking the back of this terrible virus." Reports state that Ontario received about 6,500 doses of the COVID vaccine and plans to vaccinate about 2,500 healthcare workers. Canada recently modified its vaccine order with Pfizer-BioNTech to ensure that it received about 249,000 doses of the vaccine before the end of this month itself. Canada has also inked deals with six other COVID vaccine makers and reports state that Moderna's vaccine could also be approved very soon. Some sources close to the Canadian government state that it has ordered far more number of doses of the vaccine than needed and plans to donate the excess to needy countries!