Nurses and healthcare workers share jubilant vaccine photos using hashtag #covidvaccine

Pregnant healthcare workers are also taking the vaccine

Nurses and healthcare workers, especially those who have been on the frontline for over three months during the coronavirus pandemic, are sharing jubilant photographs of themselves getting the vaccine jab with the hashtag #covidvaccine.  

“For 281 days, we’ve worked the frontlines together. Praying for each other’s safety, coordinating post-shift decontaminations & reviewing studies together. Today, [Leigh Webb] and I received the #covidvaccine together. Grateful. Hopeful. Glad,” tweeted Dr Cameron Webb of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Another doctor, Monica Verduzco-Gutierrez, called it a “really emotional experience” while expressing her gratitude for getting the vaccine.  

Dr Ryan Stroder of Texas shared his picture on Twitter and said: “Yesterday: treating Covid patients. Today: #CovidVaccine. Tomorrow: treating Covid patients. The privilege is not lost on me. I am so very thankful today.”

Dr Kevin Huang tweeted: “Started 2020 with a clinic presentation on a emerging new virus named 2019 novel coronavirus. Ending 2020 by getting the #covidvaccine. It’s been a wild year, and our work on Covid is far from done, but today I feel cautiously optimistic about the future. #grateful.”

Since the start of the pandemic earlier this year, healthcare workers have been at the highest risk of infection while treating Covid-19 patients and across the world, hundreds of doctors and nurses lost their lives to the infection.  

Thus, as countries start the vaccination process, healthcare professionals are among the first in line to receive the vaccine.  

Several hospitals also shared pictures of their doctors and nurses getting the jabs to inspire confidence about the vaccines amidst reports of a few recipients developing an allergic reaction to it.  

But people are nonetheless believing in the vaccine and taking the shot. For instance, medical professional Candice Cody, who is pregnant, tweeted her picture of getting the vaccine and said: “Got my #CovidVaccine today at 35 weeks pregnant. Will pass antibodies to baby. Grateful to be part of ending the pandemic. To those waiting: have patience. To those who are unsure: read primary sources, ask, and don’t give into fear.”

Throughout the globe, different Covid-19 vaccines have got emergency approvals from different governments as they roll out the vaccination process for their populations.

The US has given approval to a vaccine produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and is close to approving one from Moderna. Similarly, the United Kingdom has also allowed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine while Russia has gone ahead with its own Sputnik V vaccine. The United Arab Emirates, on the other hand, has chosen the vaccine developed by Chinese drugs giant Sinopharm.

There are many other vaccines in the pipeline who are waiting for trials to finish and then subsequent approvals by authorities.  

The most prominent among them is the vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford which ran into rough weather over controversy related to its data. It is also among the most anticipated, however, as it can be stored easily compared to some others that require very low temperatures.