Glens Falls Hospital has received its first shipment of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and has begun vaccinating employees based on the CDC and NY State DOH guidelines. Some of the doses received are earmarked for EMS and other first responders – the hospital is working directly with these first responder teams to get their members vaccinated. Glens Falls Hospital has not received vaccine to be given to the general public, nor do we know the timeline of such vaccines, or where the public will go to receive the vaccine.
The Moderna vaccine, which has been shown to be nearly 95% effective at preventing COVID-19 and 100% effective at preventing serious illness, is the second vaccine made available to Glens Falls Hospital Employees. Earlier this week employees received the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine at Ellis Hospital.
Glens Falls Hospital has prepared a community education seminar hosted by Hillary Alycon, MPH, CIC Director of Infection Prevention and Control. According to Alycon, “people need to be very confident in the safety and effectiveness of these two vaccines. There is no live virus present in the vaccine, only what is known as the messenger or mRNA spike protein, so it is impossible for the vaccine to cause COVID-19. When we take the vaccine, we begin to develop antibodies that recognize these spike proteins which are on the outside of the COVID-19 virus. This builds up our immunity and will help keep us safe from the disease.”
Please visit www.GlensFallsHospital.org/COVID19Vaccine to see the community education seminar.
The first person to receive the vaccine at Glens Falls Hospital was Stephanie Kelly, Lab Lead, Microbiology. When talking about receiving the vaccine, Stephanie said, “It was great, I did not feel a thing, less than what I feel with the flu shot usually.” She also says, “ I would recommend everyone getting this vaccination, it is important. We are so lucky and I am happy to have it.”
