Jamie Munks, Stacy St. Clair, Dan Petrella, Lisa Schencker and Gregory Pratt
Chicago Tribune
As the first COVID-19 vaccine administered in Illinois was plunged into Dr. Marina Del Riosâ left arm Tuesday, she thought about all the people who didnât live to see the historic day.
Her former patients. The health care workers who treated the virus and lost their lives because of it. The friend who died in the early days of the pandemic.
âI canât give you a total number of the people I know who have died or lost loved ones. Iâve stopped counting,â said Del Rios, the social emergency medicine director at the University of Illinois Hospital. âYou never want any lives to be lost, but so many at the same time weighs even heavier on you.â
The beginning of the end : Illinois starts administering COVID-19 vaccine chicagotribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from chicagotribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
PEORIA â In a historic moment, health care workers in Chicago and Peoria on Tuesday became the first groups in Illinois to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, marking what Illinois Department of Public Health Director Dr. Ngozi Ezike called âthe beginning of the endâ of the pandemic.
The vaccine, developed by the drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech, was granted Emergency Use Authorization by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week and is now being shipped throughout the United States. Early studies have shown that after two doses that are given 21 days apart, the vaccine is 95% effective in preventing the disease.