Immune To COVID? New Study Suggests Why

High-risk health care workers began receiving the first doses of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. on Monday.

Critical case nurse Sandra Lindsay was one of the first — if not the first — to receive a shot. She was vaccinated shortly after 9 a.m. in Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, N.Y., the Associated Press reported.

“I feel hopeful today. Relieved,” Lindsay said.

Doctors and nurses in Louisville, Kentucky; Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; and Tampa, Florida; were among the first health care professionals to receive the vaccine in their states.

About 3 million doses of the vaccine, which has to be kept at minus 94 degrees, were on their way from Pfizer’s Kalamazoo, Michigan, factory to distribution sites Monday, AP reported.

The vaccine, made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, was the first of several in development to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday. A vaccine from Moderna will be reviewed by an FDA advisory panel Thursday.

"This is mile 24 of a marathon. People are fatigued. But we also recognize that this end is in sight," Dr. Chris Dale of Swedish Health Services in Seattle told the AP.

Nearly 300,000 people in the U.S. have died because of COVID-19, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. More than 16.3 million have been infected. Worldwide, there have been 72.4 million infections from the new coronavirus, and 1.6 million people have died.

United States

-President Donald Trump reversed a plan for senior White House staff members to receive the coronavirus vaccine in the coming days. In a tweet Sunday night, Trump said, "People working in the White House should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program, unless specifically necessary." The New York Times had reported that the administration was planning to distribute the vaccine to its staff despite the fact that early doses were generally being reserved for high-risk health care workers.

World

-Canada has received its first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and could begin vaccinating residents as early as Monday. "The first batch of doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine have arrived in Canada," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted late Sunday. The first doses are expected to go to people in long-term nursing homes in Quebec and to hospitals in Toronto and Ottawa in Ontario, the Canadian Broadcast Corporation reported.

-Primary care doctors in England began vaccinating their patients Monday, the New York Times reported. The shots are being given in more than 100 vaccination centers in villages, towns and cities, the National Health Service said. Staff and residents of nursing homes and those aged 80 and over still get priority for these vaccinations.

-A day after Chancellor Angela Merkel announced that Germany would return to tighter lockdown restrictions including all non-essential retail and services closing, the country's president said the tougher restrictions are vital to slow the spread of coronavirus, CNN reported. "From Wednesday onwards, our public and private life will be more restricted than we have ever seen in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany," President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said, adding: "The situation is dead serious." In Germany, more than 1.3 million people have been infected. Nearly 22,000 have died because of the new coronavirus.

For the latest coronavirus information in your county and a full list of important resources to help you make the smartest decisions regarding the disease, check out our dedicated COVID-19 page.

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