A Black Woman Has Become The First Person To Receive A Covid-19 Vaccine In New York

“I feel hopeful today, relieved,” Sandra Lindsay said after receiving the coronavirus vaccine in New York.

A Black woman has become the first person in New York — and among one of the first people in the United States — to receive a non-trial coronavirus vaccine.

In a report from CNN, Sandra Lindsay was given the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine during a live video Monday morning by Dr. Michelle Chester, the corporate director of employee health services at Northwell Health. Lindsay, who is an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York City, said that the coronavirus “didn’t feel any different than taking any other vaccine.”

“I’m feeling well. I would like to thank all the frontline workers, all my colleagues who have been doing a yeoman’s job to fight this pandemic all over the world,” she said. “I feel hopeful today, relieved. I feel like healing is coming. I hope this marks the beginning of the end of a very painful time in our history.”

People have since reacted to the news on social media, with some using the moment between Lindsay and Chester — both Black women — to highlight Dr. Kizzmekia “Kizzy” Corbett, a Black doctor who helped Moderna with their coronavirus vaccine. She is one of the National Institutes of Health’s leading scientists.

Dr. Anthony Fauci recently highlighted Corbett during a forum hosted last week by the National Urban League.

“The very vaccine that’s one of the two that has absolutely exquisite levels — 94 to 95% efficacy against clinical disease and almost 100% efficacy against serious disease that are shown to be clearly safe — that vaccine was actually developed in my institute’s vaccine research center by a team of scientists led by Dr. Barney Graham and his close colleague, Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, or Kizzy Corbett,” Fauci said, according to ABC News. “Kizzy is an African American scientist who is right at the forefront of the development of the vaccine.”

Moderna’s vaccine is expected to receive emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this month.