MANSFIELD — Christmas came early for healthcare providers at OhioHealth.
On Tuesday, for the first time in Richland County, the COVID-19 vaccine was administered to 75 frontline physicians, providers and associates working at OhioHealth Mansfield and Shelby hospitals.
It was the first sign of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel in the fight against the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic for local healthcare workers. Richland County reported 119 hospitalizations on Monday due to COVID-19, the highest daily number reported since the pandemic reached Ohio in March.
Rated last week as the state’s only “purple” county in Ohio’s Public Health Advisory System, Richland County remains among the highest this week in terms of new COVID-19 occurrence. Between Dec. 6 and Dec. 19, 1,404 new cases were reported.
“With folks so dreadfully ill and dying, this is a glimmer of hope and will potentially allow us to return back to normal,” said Dr. Robert Schwartz, a vascular surgeon who was the first to receive the vaccine on Tuesday.
Administering Schwartz’s vaccine on Tuesday was Miranda Montemarano, an RN with 21 years experience at OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, part of a special COVID-19 vaccination team.
“During this period of time where so many of us are overstretched and exhausted and scared, it’s meaningful work to care for other healthcare workers,” Montemarano said.
“Meeting all these highly informed healthcare workers that are so excited to have this little bit of hope, and being able to give that to them, it’s the best part of this experience,” she said.
According to Dr. Gavin Baumgardner, vice president of medical affairs, the entire OhioHealth system received 2,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and 10,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine. Both are messenger RNA vaccines (also called mRNA vaccines) that will be administered in two steps; the Pfizer vaccine 21 days apart, and the Moderna vaccine 28 days apart.
The vaccines administered on Tuesday were the Pfizer brand.
“We are prioritizing our highest priority frontline workers, critical care, ER, hospital medicine, all frontline associates that are really in need of this very valuable and necessary vaccine,” Baumgardner said.
The next first round of vaccines will be administered at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital next Thursday.
“There’s been a lot of frustration, especially right now dealing with the surge that we’re dealing with at the hospital and across our communities,” Baumgardner said. “There’s a lot of relief that maybe this is a turning point in the battle against coronavirus. It feels good to have a weapon against this disease.”
Every person receiving the vaccine on Thursday was a healthcare provider working directly with COVID-19 patients. In Schwartz’s work as a vascular surgeon, that means dealing with “devastating” blood clots caused by the disease.
“It’s been difficult,” he said. “Modern medicine doesn’t have any evidence as to how best to care for patients when this disease arrives; that’s why it’s called a novel virus. We’ve been learning on the job.”
After receiving the first vaccine, Schwartz said it will take a week to have 60 percent resistance; a week after receiving the second dose, he hopes to be 95 percent immune.
As a former organ transplant surgeon, Schwartz is familiar with immunology. He said he is hopeful the population gets vaccinated to encourage herd immunity, which means the COVID-19 virus will not be transmitted as readily from person to person.
“This is as safe a product as we could potentially have,” Schwartz said. “Many vaccines are dead viruses; this is a vaccine that has the messenger RNA and the actual genetic material is removed from the body in two or three days.
“It’s a safe vaccine, and I encourage everybody to take it.”
