The First Shot at UCLA

Finally, there is confirmation that the first coronavirus vaccinations have occurred at UCLA (as opposed to plans and projections). From the Bruin:

UCLA Health administered its first COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday.

Medell Briggs-Malonson, an emergency medicine physician at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, was the first person to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine administered at UCLA.

“It meant so much to be the first patient, and I’m proud to be that,” Briggs-Malonson said at a vaccination event hosted by UCLA Health on Wednesday.

UCLA Health plans to administer around 500 vaccinations for health care workers at UCLA on Wednesday, said Karen Grimley, chief nursing executive for UCLA Health, at the event. UCLA Health received its initial shipment of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines Tuesday, and will act as a regional hub to distribute the vaccines to surrounding acute-care hospitals. The Western States Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, which covers California, Nevada, Oregon and Washington, approved the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as safe for public use Sunday morning after the Food and Drug Administration gave the vaccine an emergency use authorization Friday.

Briggs-Malonson said she felt a sense of gratitude for those who developed and distributed the vaccine, with optimism that the vaccine will help change the course of the pandemic.

“As an African American woman, (COVID-19) has devastated our under-resourced communities in our communities of color,” she said. “It is so incredibly important that people of color, in particular, know that this vaccine is safe and this vaccine is highly effective."

The vaccines at UCLA are being rolled out in a multiphase process, said Carrie Byington, the executive vice president of University of California Health, during a Board of Regents Health Services Committee meeting Tuesday. During Phase 1A, the initial phase of vaccine distribution, UCLA Health will vaccinate around 27,000 health care workers...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2020/12/16/ucla-health-administers-first-doses-of-covid-19-vaccine-to-health-care-workers