FORT BRAGG, N.C. (WTVD) The race to vaccinate healthcare workers on the nation s largest military installation continue.
The first round of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in Fort Bragg on Tuesday, officials executing a plan urging all healthcare workers on post to set the standard. I got it just a moment ago. It was easier than a flu vaccine, said Colonel James Burk, commander of the 44th Medical Brigade. What we re seeing on the data that for any potential side effects are negligible at best and I just want to reinforce this vaccine is safe.
His unit deployed to the Javits Center in New York a few months back taking on the fight against COVID-19. The soldiers witnessed its devastating effects.
Now, she’s trying to keep people from getting the disease.
Lomasney, chief of allergy and immunology at Fort Bragg’s Womack Army Medical Center, spent eight weeks in Texas working in the Intensive Care Unit of a hospital that was overrun by patients with the disease.
“Most were very sick,” she said.
Lomasney said she would not wish COVID-19 on anyone.
“I’ve seen the destruction this disease can do on individuals, communities, families,” she said. “For every single person who gets infected and has a bad outcome, that’s a family that’s devastated.”
This week, Lomasney has been helping with efforts to give the COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare workers and soldiers at Fort Bragg. Womack officials received a shipment of the Pfizer vaccine from the Department of Defense on Tuesday and started vaccinating healthcare workers at about 1 p.m. that day. On Thursday, dozens of soldiers were getting the vaccine at the hospital.