First COVID vaccine administered in Charleston as cases in SC continue to rise
Minutes before the new COVID-19 vaccine was injected into her right arm on Tuesday afternoon, Shemika Champion said she believed it was important to receive the shot so that she could set an example not only for members of her community, but for her three sons.
Just in case, though, the 34-year-old said a little prayer.
Champion, a pediatric registered nurse who has worked at the Medical University of South Carolina since 2005, received the new coronavirus vaccine shot shortly after 12:45 p.m., making her the first frontline healthcare worker in the Lowcountry to receive the vaccine.
She did not flinch as the needle injected the RNA messenger molecules into her right arm, just above a tattoo bearing her name.
In an interview, she said she was thinking only of her patients as members of the media documented what felt to her like any other shot. But this wasn’t a normal shot.
Dr. Danielle Scheurer, MUSC’s chief quality officer, called the arrival of this vaccine “a new chapter” in the fight against the deadly coronavirus that has killed nearly 4,500 people in South Carolina.
“I think this is a big deal for the world,” Champion said before being stuck with the needle.
Champion was one of seven healthcare workers who was given the new COVID-19 shots at MUSC’s campus in downtown Charleston on Tuesday, just hours after the hospital received its first shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine.
The historic moment, which took place beneath a white tent that is normally used as a drive-thru COVID-19 testing site, signals a critical turning point in the battle against the pandemic.
Twelve other hospitals across South Carolina, including Lexington Medical Center in the Midlands, were planning to receive their initial share of the Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine Tuesday, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control. This comes as Charleston, Columbia and other communities around the state are pushing back against the recent surge in coronavirus infections.
The first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines arrived in the Palmetto State on Monday, and a doctor at Conway Medical Center in Horry County became the first person in South Carolina to receive the vaccine.
On Tuesday, MUSC received 4,875 doses of the vaccine and plans to prioritize inoculating staff members who touch COVID-19 patients as part of their duties.
The vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, which proved 95% effective in the latest clinical trials, must be stored in ultra-cold freezers. Scheurer said MUSC Health went from having one freezer to three, which proved critical in being able to obtain and store the shipment of the new vaccine.
She confirmed the vaccines are also being guarded by security.
Scheurer said MUSC Health’s experiences with natural disasters, like floods and hurricanes, has helped the health system be able to adapt to an evolving pandemic.
“Living and working in a hurricane and weather-prone area, we get very good at disaster planning, and this is a lot like disaster planning,” she said of having to figure out incredibly detailed procedures, including how to handle the vaccine distribution plan.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, a two-shot vaccine that was approved last Friday by the FDA, was free and voluntary for MUSC Health workers.
The next wave of inoculations at MUSC Health, according to Scheurer, will be for health care workers who come within 6 feet of COVID-19 patients, and then those who are otherwise critical to the mission. Details of the subsequent phases of vaccine roll-out are still being determined, she said.
Already, interest in getting the shot is high within the health system.
When MUSC opened registration for the vaccine to its workers at noon Sunday, the website briefly crashed, according spokeswoman Heather Woolwine.
The vaccine also arrived at a time of great urgency, with the state now confronting an alarming rise in its confirmed COVID-19 cases. For 11 of the last 12 days, South Carolina has recorded more than 2,000 new coronavirus cases each day.
The seven-day COVID-19 positivity rate is now at its highest point since mid-July.
Veronica Gaither, a registered nurse in MUSC’s cardiovasular intensive care unit, was the fourth health care worker to receive a shot. She said she has seen the impact of the virus and did not hesitate when given the opportunity to sign up and get vaccinated.
“I have seen some of these patients just really tremendously struggling to even do the simplest thing, and I’ve seen the anxiety it produces when you can’t get enough air,” said Gaither, 33. “It’s just really heart-wrenching.”
Gaither remembers one patient in particular who received every possible life-saving effort, but it still wasn’t enough to save them.
“That’s a tragic thing to say as a health care provider: That you can try to throw everything that you can at it, and still be unsuccessful,” Gaither said.
Scheurer said more than 3,000 front-line healthcare workers at MUSC have signed up to get the vaccine in the coming weeks. After the initial seven MUSC workers received vaccinations on Tuesday, the plan was to continue giving shots until around 8 p.m., or until roughly 700 shots had been administered.
It’s just the beginning.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said its preliminary analysis confirmed the effectiveness and safety of a second vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health. It is expected to be approved as early as Thursday.
While the Moderna vaccine uses the same technology as the one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, the Moderna vaccine does not need to be stored in minus-94 degrees Fahrenheit.
“It’s going to get really complicated as we get multiple vaccines,” Scheurer predicted.
For now, Scheurer said she’s thankful for what the arrival of this vaccine has already done for morale among healthcare workers.
“They have been slogging through this pandemic for, you know, almost 12 months now, and they deserve a break. And they deserve hope, and that’s what we’re giving them here today,” she said.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 4:25 PM.
