Two frontline employees to discuss being first in New York State to be vaccinated.
There is finally a light at the end of the tunnel. Northwell Health has received its first shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech’s long-anticipated coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine and will immediately begin the first phase of a three-stage rollout to essential frontline hospital personnel. Physicians, nurses and any staff member working in direct contact with COVID-19 patients will receive the first of two doses, led by two volunteers today.
After an initial discussion of the efficacy of the vaccine, two Northwell Health employees will volunteer to be the first to be vaccinated: Yves Duroseau, MD, chair of emergency medicine at Lenox Hill Hospital and Sandra Lindsay, RN, a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. Both Dr. Duroseau and Nurse Lindsay have worked tirelessly to ease the suffering of COVID-19 patients since the virus outbreak began in New York 10 months ago. It is their hope that their willingness to be among the first to be vaccinated in the region will serve as an example to the general public to take advantage of this life-saving treatment.
Governor Andrew Cuomo will participate in and share the first vaccinations via livestream while Northwell will make the employees available to reporters on site and offer up a third health care worker to be vaccinated on camera. * More than 35,000 New Yorkers have succumbed to COVID-19.
With Michael Dowling, president and CEO, Northwell Health
Mark Jarrett, MD, chief quality officer, deputy physician in chief, Northwell Health
Yves Duroseau, MD, chair, emergency medicine, Lenox Hill Hospital
Sandra Lindsay, RN, critical care nurse, Long Island Jewish Medical Center
Michelle Chester, DNP, director, employee health services, Northwell Health (to administer vaccine)
Northwell Health is New York State’s largest health care provider and private employer, with 23 hospitals, nearly 800 outpatient facilities and more than 14,200 affiliated physicians. We care for over two million people annually in the New York metro area and beyond, thanks to philanthropic support from our communities.
Our 74,000 employees – 18,500 nurses and 4,500 employed doctors, including members of Northwell Health Physician Partners – are working to change health care for the better. We’re making breakthroughs in medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research. We’re training the next generation of medical professionals at the visionary Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell and the Hofstra Northwell School of Nursing and Physician Assistant Studies. For information on our more than 100 medical specialties.
