On December 16, the nation’s first hospital was the site of another momentous occasion: Pennsylvania Hospital’s Eric Young, RN, BSN, an Emergency Department nurse, was the first Penn Medicine employee to receive a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Over the last several weeks, Zubrow Auditorium has served as a vaccine clinic, and thousands of frontline staff have followed Young’s footsteps, lifting their sleeves in an effort to protect themselves and their families, patients, and colleagues. For Onyeka Nwankwo, MD, an epidemiologist and chair of the Infection Prevention Committee, getting the vaccine was “an easy decision.”
“Consulting multiple sources was critical for me to make the best recommendations for my patients and colleagues,” he said. Based on his extensive review of the data — which he recently shared in a virtual Interprofessional Grand Rounds available on the PAH Intranet — Nwankwo concluded that the vaccine is safe, effective, and crucial. Though getting vaccinated doesn’t provide “a green card to stop doing all the things you were doing to control the virus” like social distancing and wearing masks, it’s “the first step in decreasing community transmission, protecting our loved ones, and finally ending the pandemic.”
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Employees are being notified via email with the opportunity to make appointments for vaccination. If you have questions about scheduling, please reach out to your manager. For other vaccine FAQs, visit the UPHS Vaccine Information website.