A Year Later, First American Vaccinated Speaks

one year ago on Dec 14, Sandra Lindsay, a nurse at Northwell Health in New York, didn’t realise she’d become the first person in the U.S. to get the COVID-19 shot — or that her life would change.

Since her vaccination, she became a star.

“When I got there, I saw the cameras set up,” says Lindsay. 

Images and video footage of her receiving the jab began circulating in media outlets around the world within minutes.

Her phone began to ring. Her mother was the first to call, followed by friends from her native Jamaica. “It was just wild,” she says, recalling how everyone was overjoyed to see her face in the news.

She was the grand marshal of New York City’s Hometown Heroes Parade for front-line workers in July. President Biden then honoured her at a White House ceremony for “becoming a shining example of exemplary civic service,” according to a press release.

Meanwhile, she was finishing her doctorate in health sciences while working as the director of nursing for the critical care division at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, which is part of Northwell Health.

Time.com did an article telling how the first American vaccinated against COVID-19 felt about the pandemic. a year later!

The few seconds of the jab gave her fame because she is probably the first civilian to be vaccinated in the world and she is still doing fine.

The now 53-year-old critical care nurse from Long Island, New York, recalls being grateful to everyone who made her shot possible.

She also knew that the shot would allow her to take the first step toward meeting her new grandson safely, writes Time.

“When I was able to take off my mask and to hug him, that little moment just meant the world to me,” she says.

Lindsay has spent much of the last year promoting vaccination on television and in-person appearances in the U.S. and Jamaica, where she was born.

“Historically, Black people, for the sake of medicine and medical advancement, have endured a lot of harm and unethical practices,” she says. “My vaccination alone on national TV does not erase all of that harm and pain. For me, that represented just the beginning of, hopefully, a path to building trust between communities of color and the medical profession.”