Getting the Covid-19 vaccine was emotional but exciting for these healthcare workers

“ Business as usual ” even on vaccine day

Recognition. This is the word emergency doctor Matuskowitz used to describe how he felt after receiving the vaccine on Thursday.

He was surprised when he actually felt the greater significance of the syringe filled with the wanted vaccine entering his arm.

“I was in the day like every other day, sort of being in a rush and getting the kids to daycare and just exhausted with everything,” Matuskowitz said. “I found myself very emotional as I walked to get the shot, during the shot … and after, on my way home.”

The past six months since South Carolina had its summer wave of Covid-19 meant that Matuskowitz and his colleagues had to go on, treating patients with a “business as usual” attitude, he said.

This week he felt the same, but said he noticed a “wave of excitement” from his colleagues about the vaccine.

“Every clinician and nurse I spoke to was eager to get the shot,” he said. “There is great enthusiasm from the medical community on the front lines.”

Be part of the solution

“I’m not scared,” she told CNN. “I trust science. My profession is deeply rooted in science. I trust science. What I don’t trust is to get Covid-19, because I don’t know how this will affect me and the people around me that I could potentially transfer the virus to. “

After receiving the photo, she told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she was feeling “good.”

“I want to be part of the solution to end this pandemic once and for all,” she told CNN. “I also think as the leader of the organization that I lead by example. I don’t ask people to do something that I wouldn’t do myself.”

Juggling parenting and the front lines

Julia Slovis, 33, returned from maternity leave in the pediatric intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia in June, entering the pandemic directly.

She and her husband Benjamin, 35, juggle, like so many others, working on the front lines of the pandemic and being parents of two toddlers. He works in medicine just four miles down the road as an assistant professor and director of clinical informatics in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University.

“Overall, it has been educational and a fit” both as parents to keep children stimulated at home and as healthcare professionals working with patients battling the virus, Julia said.

“I’m so excited to start the process of getting the world back to normal and my vaccine is a very small piece of it,” Julia told CNN. “It’s like a common sense of oneness that I can do a little thing to bring this world back to normal by getting my vaccine.”

Benjamin received his vaccine on Wednesday and told CNN he felt “completely good and happy” with no side effects.

And although he has already been vaccinated, Julia followed suit on Saturday, the couple said doing it does not change their habits. They both plan to continue wearing masks, avoiding vacations with family or friends, and practicing social distancing and good hygiene.

Sitting down to get the shot, Benjamin said he felt lucky and cautiously optimistic “that this could lead to the start of the end” of the pandemic.

“Did I breathe a sigh of relief? he said. “Only in the sense that nothing is going to change just yet, but it certainly gave me a sense of hope that we could maybe think about in the future.”

The pair will receive their second dose in January.

One more step towards the family in his arms

In the past eight months, Dr. Saumil Doshi, 43, an infectious disease specialist, said he has personally seen up to 200 coronavirus patients. Doshi is also the Director of the Infectious Disease Fellowship Program at MedStar Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC.

Doshi was among the frontline workers receiving the vaccine on Friday.

“I am delighted and grateful for the incredible collaboration between scientists to make this possible,” he said. “But also realizing that we are far from the finish line. I had my chance, I kept my mask on and got back to work.”

Choosing to take the vaccine was a no-brainer, Doshi said, after reviewing the data and monitoring the approval process closely.

“There was so much work that went into its development,” he said. “So many people looked at the data and were independent of the companies that developed the vaccine, so I have full confidence that every step has been taken to ensure that it is safe.

“And while it was an easy decision to take the vaccine, it was not a decision I made lightly,” he said.

“After the vaccine, I will still have to wear a mask and continue to socialize until we get the pandemic under control,” he said. “It will take a lot more people to get vaccinated.”

And even after the second dose, which Doshi will receive in three weeks, he said it was still possible to get Covid-19 because the vaccine is not 100% effective.

“ Feel good ” about the vaccine rollout

Boston Medical Center received a shipment of Covid-19 vaccines on Monday, making it the first hospital in Massachusetts to receive the vaccine and to begin vaccinating healthcare workers during the week.

“Staff ‘feel good’ about this important turning point in the pandemic,” the hospital wrote on Instagram.

So to show how good they felt, some of them broke out in a choreographed dance sequence to one of Lizzo’s songs.

The way the scientific community came together to create the vaccine is something to celebrate. Matuskowitz hopes it’s not lost on the people, he said.

“The joint effort of this singular vision was a big part of why I felt so grateful and full of happiness,” he said. “I think Covid is still with us, as is the flu, but now we have a way to prevent it and suppress its ability to affect us. This knowledge based on all this scientific work has been a remarkable human achievement.”