OSU health care workers among first to get vaccine

Frontline workers at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center were among the first to receive the COVID-19 vaccine Monday morning.

A box of 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arrived in a UPS truck around 9:30 a.m.

With a command of "3, 2, 1" from Elizabeth Seely, chief administrator of Ohio's State's hospitals, the first vaccines were administered in a large room where recipients sat spaced apart at conference tables.

Thirty doctors and nurses received the first of the doses the university received Monday.

Among them was Dr. Mercy Dickson, a third-year resident physician who was thrilled to be among the first to get vaccinated.

Dickson said the vaccine is "an opportunity" to close that gap among those most affected by the coronavirus.

"Minority communities are dying at a disproportionate rate, and this is an opportunity for us to close that gap and to survive and thrive as a community. And also for our non-minority members of society: I think that it's really important for the same reasons, making sure that we are protecting ourselves and our loved ones," she told The Associated Press.

The University of Cincinnati medical center also received the same amount of shots and vaccinated 20 people, with eight more hospitals to receive additional doses Tuesday.

Initial vaccinations will start in nursing homes on Friday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.