First COVID-19 vaccinations provide sense of hope for Michigan hospitals
Updated Dec 15, 2020;
Posted Dec 15, 2020
A truck carry the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is loaded at Pfizer Global Supply plant in Portage, Michigan on Sunday, Dec. 13, 2020. (Joel Bissell | MLive.com)Joel Bissell | MLive.com
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Michigan health care workers began receiving the first doses of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine Monday, Dec. 14.
Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids and Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor were the first health systems to report front line workers being vaccinated Monday.
“It’s great to have this opportunity,” said Dr. Marc McClelland, one of the five Spectrum Health caregivers to receive the vaccine Monday. “I’ve been more than ready to do this having seen what I’ve seen in the past several months. Having lived in this COVID world, this is clearly the path forward.”
WMUK s Andy Robins speaks with Western Regional Health Education Center Director Lisa Brennan
The project will pair students at four schools in Kent and Newaygo counties with mentors who are undergraduates at Western Michigan University at Grand Valley State University.
Lisa Brennan is the head of the Western Regional Health Education Center based at Western Michigan University s College of Health and Human Services, which is running the project. She says the ninth and tenth graders involved in the Health Careers Pipeline Program will get experiences they might not otherwise have. They ll do hands-on activities that expose them to actual activities that health and human service providers would be doing in their day-to-day job.
First Michigander gets COVID-19 vaccine: I ve been more than ready to do this Kristen Jordan Shamus and Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press
First COVID-19 vaccines administered at University of Michigan
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Michigan was injected with a shot of hope Monday, when after months of witnessing pain and suffering brought by a deadly virus, a Grand Rapids doctor rolled up his sleeve to become the first person in the state to get the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine.
At 12:04 p.m., Dr. Marc McClelland, a pulmonologist at Spectrum Health Butterworth Hospital in Grand Rapids, took a shot to the arm with the highly anticipated Pfizer coronavirus vaccine that won federal emergency-use approval just one day earlier.
and last updated 2020-12-13 07:21:47-05
MICHIGAN â Pfizer s COVID-19 vaccine was approved late Friday night by the FDA, setting off a rush to get the vaccine shipped out of the company s Portage facility by the end of the weekend.
Pfizer announced Saturday their vaccine would begin shipping early Sunday morning, however FedEx said in an interview with FOX 17 they would not begin shipping until Monday, Dec. 14th, so facilities would have time to prepare.
A spokesperson from Spectrum Health in Grand Rapids believes they are among the first hospitals in the state to receive the vaccine.
Spectrum has said in the past that they are prepared to receive the vaccine within 24 hours of shipping.