Doctors give ‘shot of hope’

For the past 9 months, Dr. Venkat Chandra has been fighting on the front lines against Covid-19 in the UK.

Chandra, a 46-year-old emergency physician at the University Hospital of Wales in Cardriff, was one of the first people to receive the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine after it was licensed by the British government.

Darrell Baker (left), clinical director of pharmacy at the Cardiff vaccination center health board, mixes a syringe of Covid-19 vaccine with colleague Rhys Oats.

Chandra and 244 others received their jabs inside a gym converted into a temporary vaccination center on the first day of Britain’s nationwide mass vaccination programme.

`There is still a long way to go but hopefully everyone will come get vaccinated to bring the country out of the crisis,` he said.

Mass Covid-19 vaccination less than a week after Britain approved the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is the result of months of research, logistical planning and clinical trials.

For Chandra, the Covid-19 vaccine injection is no different from an ant bite.

Nurses at the Cardiff vaccination center are drawn from a range of hospitals and health facilities across the city.

Sharon Chapman, 60, a breast cancer nurse, volunteered to participate in the vaccination program.

`I’d like to think we’re injecting hope into people,` she said.

The hope that Chapman mentioned is that if enough people get vaccinated, the UK will achieve herd immunity and life will return to normal.

Markers posted with tape on the basketball court show a safe distance between people in the waiting area, in front of 5 temporary rooms set up as vaccine injection sites.

Vaccines are stored in a refrigerator in a separate room under extremely strict conditions.

But because the Covid-19 vaccine is so new, the above process has not been implemented by the manufacturer.

They practiced for weeks, performing simulated dispensing with bottles of distilled water, testing the distribution and storage systems.

`We received the first batch of vaccines in Wales yesterday… It was a momentous event,` he shared.

The basketball court at the sports center in Cardriff has been converted into a Covid-19 vaccination site.

The demand for Covid-19 vaccine is very high, but only a very small portion of people who want to be vaccinated are met.

Michael Fox, a pediatric emergency physician in Cardiff, said he felt grateful he was among the first to receive the vaccine.

The 32-year-old doctor has another reason to feel grateful.

`The risk for pregnant women is a little higher when they are infected with Covid-19. So I just hope that when the number of people vaccinated is enough and if Covid-19 is controlled, my wife can give birth