The choice of who should be first in line Tuesday for the COVID-19 vaccine seemed pretty obvious to staffers at Morristown Medical Center.
Captain COVID.
Jeffrey Tanis, 26, earned the nickname in March, as one of the first nurses at the hospital to care for patients infected with the novel coronavirus.
“He’s been in the COVID unit in the middle of this since the very beginning,” said Atlantic Health CEO Brian Gragnolati. Tanis also became a father during the pandemic. “So he’s a real hero,” the executive said.
Initially nervous about trying a new vaccine, Tanis said he gained confidence after talking with colleagues.
“It was a chance you have to take, and trust the science behind it,” said the Bloomingdale resident, who was applauded by an audience that included Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-11th Dist.), before a phalanx of news cameras.
Atlantic’s Morristown Medical Center is among six acute-care hospitals across New Jersey to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Earlier on Tuesday, a nurse at University Hospital in Newark became the first person in the Garden State to be vaccinated against the virus, which has killed nearly 16,000 people statewide and more than 300,000 nationally.
Healthcare workers are getting the vaccine first. Nursing home residents come next, followed by persons whose underlying conditions place them at high risk. Inoculation is likely months away for the general public.
The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at extremely low temperatures, and administered in two doses, three weeks apart. The Food and Drug Administration approved the vaccine last week after a trial indicated it is 95 percent effective in preventing COVID-19.
Vaccines usually take years to reach the public. To see this one roll out in less than a year “is so incredibly hopeful,” said Sherrill, whose father participated in the Pfizer trial.
The congresswoman anticipates Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine also will receive federal approval shortly. She plans to get vaccinated when it’s her turn.
“I feel very confident in the safety and security of these vaccines,” Sherrill said.
Gragnolati credited public/private partnerships for the speed in Operation Warp Speed. The government provided funding and enabled drug companies to start vaccine production ahead of approvals, a risk companies could not afford on their own, he said.
The result stirred powerful emotions on Tuesday afternoon, as masked personnel from Atlantic’s six hospitals were inoculated by oncology nurse Valerie Bolcar.
Gragnolati choked up when asked how it felt to watch this scene unfold.
“It’s been a long 10 months. To be able to protect our team members in another way, other than masks and gowns and shields, is just so great,” the CEO said.
Dr. Sharen Anghel, chairwoman of medicine at Overlook Medical Center, was among those vaccinated. She said the science is solid and the public should fear COVID more than this shot.
“I’ve been on the front lines. I’ve seen the devastation. There is no devastation that will amount to that. This is… our opportunity to get past this,” Anghel said.
But nobody’s taking any victory laps.
During the spring surge, Atlantic’s network saw more than 900 COVID patients per day. While that figure is below 300 now, Gragnolati said numbers are rising, and Atlantic projects the virus will continue spreading over the Christmas holiday.
“This is not over yet,” advised Trish O’Keefe, Morristown Medical Center president and a nurse. “So we need to make sure we really influence each other and support each other by not seeing each other, actually.”
All hospital staffers who want the vaccine will be inoculated over the next four or five weeks, O’Keefe said. For everyone else, she repeated the hospital’s mantra:
Social distancing. Masks. Frequent hand washing.
That’s sound advice, according to Captain COVID. He would prefer spending more time with his 5-month-old son Declan, and not having to reprise his spring heroics. Battling a sinister virus is all-consuming.
“It’s a stressful environment, a lot of hours with an unknown disease, not knowing how it’s going to affect everybody, from patients to staffing. It’s just stressful all around,” said Tanis, whose mom is a nurse.
The injection?
“I’m not going to lie. It was a little painful, a little more painful than a flu shot. My arm does feel a little achy… but nothing unbearable at this time.”
Like Tanis said, it was a chance he had to take.
“I hope that by following the protocols in place, using the PPE and social distancing, with the combination of the coronavirus vaccine, hopefully we can get rid of the virus altogether.”
