PARKER – Hope after the pandemic that personifies the new COVID-19 vaccine surged a little further on New Year’s Day and moved past medical workers in the first direction and into the arms of the first of Colorado’s thousands of school workers.
About a dozen school nurses from the Cherry Creek school district filed at Parker Adventist Hospital on Friday to get the initial injection of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, which first arrived in the state less than three weeks ago.
Rachel Ellis, The Denver Post
DENVER, CO – JANUARY 01: Pfizer vaccines are ready to be ready for patients at Parker Adventist Hospital Friday in Parker, CO on Friday, January 1 in Parker, CO. School nurses from the Cherry Creek School District were one of the first employees in the school district. in Colorado to receive COVID-19 vaccines. (Photo by Rachel Ellis / The Denver Post)
For Scott Siegfried, superintendent of the 55,000-student district southeast of Denver, it was the first step in the long battle to normalcy that he hopes would end five months from now in graduation ceremonies not held on a computer screen, but in old-fashioned , clapping, shoulder-embracing noise.
“I am excited to return to these life-ritual events – the graduation ceremonies and the experiences of life,” he said. “For children, it’s a powerful moment for society to celebrate and walk across the stage.”
While Cherry Creek nurses first get the vaccine, Siegfried said teachers in the district are likely to get the chance from Jan. 11. All 9,000 staff members in the district are due to receive the first of the two injections in February, with the aim of administering both vaccinations to all teachers and staff by March.
That leaves Cherry Creek in a position to re-teach all students in person five days a week – masks are still needed, but no groups – as soon as spring begins in mid-March, Siegfried said.
‘I want to bury the word’ hybrid ‘,’ he said, referring to the practice of students spending part of the week at school and the rest at home. “I never want to talk about it again in my professional career.”
Heather Hollins, the first school nurse in Colorado to receive the vaccination, described Friday’s shot as “wonderful.” While waiting for the injection into a room at Parker Adventist to see if she had any adverse reactions to the vaccine, she said that human interaction is part of her job as a nurse.
“I want to be with my kids,” says the mother of three children who works at the Buffalo Trail Elementary School. “I want them to know who I am.”
Earlier this week, Colorado once again reviewed how it prioritizes the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, with government Jared Polis expanding the pool of people who can get it now. The governor moved the state Wednesday to the final half of Phase 1 of its vaccine distribution plan, a stage that includes Coloradans 70 and older, teachers and grocery stores.
However, the policy announcement did not lack details on how and when the people moving from Phase 2 to Phase 1B will be vaccinated, causing confusion and catching some local health officials off guard. Several district health departments have said that limited amounts of the vaccine will make the needs of the newly prescribed ones difficult to accommodate immediately.
COVID-19 has killed nearly 4,000 Coloradans since it first became fatal in the state in March. There have since been more than 337,000 cases of COVID-19 in Colorado.
Matt Phippen, a nurse from the Cherry Creek School District who alternates between schools, said he has complete confidence in Pfizer’s vaccine and that he is fortunately a guinea pig to take it in early.
“I think it’s important to help alleviate the fear of the vaccine,” he said Friday. ‘I think it will help families get children back to school. I think this is the direction we need to take to get back to normal. ”
Shauna Gulley, chief clinical officer of Centura Health, said as a pediatrician at Parker Adventist and as a mother, there is nothing more important than getting children back into the classroom for optimal learning. And it starts with the fact that adults at schools are vaccinated first, given the well-known predilection for the coronavirus to make older adults sick while largely saving the young ones.
“We are starting the new year knowing that we are going to see an end to this pandemic,” she said.
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