Telegram & Gazette
Emily Palumbo said she didn’t set out to make history by getting the first COVID-19 vaccine in North Central Massachusetts.
“I had to make (my appointment) early because my daughter is getting braces today,” Palumbo said, laughing.
But as a registered nurse in the emergency department at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital s Leominster campus, Palumbo said it was time to move forward.
“It’s been a long nine months in the emergency department,” Palumbo said. “I’m hoping we can move forward and do what’s best for the patients and the community.”
Palumbo was the first of a stream of front-line caregivers at the Leominster hospital to get vaccinated Wednesday morning, Dec. 16, as nurses, doctors, and other workers with whom COVID-19 patients are in contact filed into a conference room every 10 minutes to receive the first of two doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.