The Covid-19 vaccine is a source of hope for health care workers. But it’s too late for hundreds of them

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“A nurse wrote on a piece of paper that she received the vaccine for my father,” said his daughter, Andrea Araujo.

“She wrote: ‘For my boss and my friend who died a few weeks before receiving the vaccine. #ForDrAraujo ”. It was sad, but also very beautiful. ”

Araujo Preza was 51 years old when he died on November 30 in the same intensive care unit where he served as medical director of critical care at HCA Houston Healthcare in Tomball, Texas.

More than 240,000 health workers have been infected with coronavirus and nearly 900 have died, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For their families – and the more than 300,000 Americans who died of Covid-19 – the long-awaited vaccine is a source of hope in a year of despair. But it’s coming too late.

Dr. Carlos Araujo Preza, a pulmonologist in the Houston area, who died after contracting Covid-19 while caring for patients.

A “sweet-bitter” moment

Hundreds of people across the country, mostly front-line health workers, received the first dose of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine in a week that saw nearly 20,000 Americans die from the virus. A second Covid-19 vaccine will be delivered soon, with more than 237,000 people projected to die in the winter months.
Last Monday, as the first doses of the vaccine were delivered in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, the national number of deaths caused by the virus exceeded 300,000.
Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities are the first to receive photos. But it will be months before most Americans can get one.

“I hope this is the first step in helping other people not go through what my family has been through,” Andrea Araujo said. “I hope we’re heading in the right direction.”

Hope is hard work in a country that has surpassed its own hospitalization record for more than a dozen consecutive days.

Over the weekend, there were more than 114,700 coronavirus patients nationwide, according to data COVID follow-up project. The US has reported an average of more than 219,000 new infections each day in the past week. On Friday, another record was set: more than 249,700 new infections were reported.
Dr. Valerie Briones-Pryor was among the first people in Kentucky to receive the new Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine last month. She described the moment as “sweet-bitter”.

“While I was going to get my vaccine, I actually heard that my 27-year-old patient had died, so it was very emotional,” she said.

“The burden of fear had been lifted”

Sandra Lindsay, a nurse from New York, received the vaccine authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration a week ago. He is believed to be the first person in the country to be vaccinated against coronavirus.

Lindsay, an intensive care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, received the chance from Dr. Michelle Chester, corporate director of employee health services at Northwell Health.

Lindsay and Chester, both black, are two groups – people of color and health workers – disproportionately affected by the national health crisis. They know that the history of American racism in medical treatment and research and the lack of trust in the federal government have led some black Americans and Latinos to hesitate to get the vaccine.
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“Every day in March, when I went to work, it got darker and darker,” Lindsay told CNN City Hall on Friday night, “Covid’s Color – Vaccines.”

“I’ve seen its effects. And I don’t want to see you get into one of our intensive care beds or go into our hospitals.”

She added: “I told my colleagues, in the 26 and a half years of medical care, I have never felt so scared. After the shooting … I clapped. I felt the burden of fear lifted off my shoulders. “

U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams and Vice President Mike Pence received the public vaccine Friday as part of a campaign to boost public confidence.

“We have to admit that this … distrust comes from a historic place,” Adams, who is black, told CNN. “But we also need to explain to people that we are putting protections in place to make sure that this will never happen again.

“When you look at Covid-19, the fact that you’re three to five times more likely to end up in a hospital and / or die if you’re African-American, Hispanic, or Native American, these are mistakes that even happen. now.”

There are no reservations about the administration of the vaccine

Araujo Preza was born in El Salvador and came to the United States in 1994 to continue his medical education. He studied at Staten Island University Hospital in New York and Tulane University in New Orleans. In 2001, he moved to the Houston area, where he worked as a pulmonologist for nearly two decades.

In April, during the height of the first wave of the pandemic, he slept in the hospital for almost a month to be on duty, according to his daughter. When he became ill in October, he minimized his condition so as not to worry his family.

Araujo Preza was admitted to the ICU in early November and remained there for about a week and a half. He had just been discharged from the hospital 48 hours before being readmitted. When his condition worsened, he was transferred to Houston Methodist Hospital and later placed on a ventilator. He never returned home.

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“All my life he has always worked hard and been very dedicated to his patients and his practice,” said Andrea Araujo. “And more than ever this year, he exemplified this.”

She has no reservations about the vaccine, she said.

“I’m not a health professional, but I know my father wanted to get the vaccine,” Araujo said. “And that’s how it gives me confidence. Whenever I get a chance to get it, I’ll do it.”

Jhulan Banago said he did not feel any bitterness that his mother had never received the vaccine.
Celia Yap-Banago – who was born in the Philippines – died in April at the age of 69, just days before celebrating her 40th birthday as a nurse at the Medical Research Center in Kansas City, Missouri.

“There is a great opportunity ahead of us,” said the 29-year-old engineer. “We can’t change what has already happened, and going forward, I certainly want health care workers with 29-year-old sons not to have the interview we’re doing now.”

Since her death, Yap-Banago’s family has always repaired a small plate for him at dinner. I often return the TV to her favorite station – The Hallmark Channel, which she watched while she slept.

“My mother would certainly be delighted and relieved to know that there is a vaccine developed to help us, to help front-line workers fight this terrible enemy,” Banago said.

Harmeet Kaur, Catherine E. Shoichet, Christina Maxouris, Eric Levenson and Travis Caldwell contributed to this report.

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