PHOTOS: Doylestown Hospital Workers Receive COVID-19 Vaccine

DOYLESTOWN, PA —Seventy-five Doylestown Health employees were among the first of 1,200 frontline healthcare workers in Pennsylvania to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine this week.

Thousands of vaccine doses were delivered to 16 different hospitals statewide following emergency approval late last week from the Food and Drug Administration. Doylestown Hospital was one of nine in the state to receive the vaccine in record time.

“Today is the beginning of the end of the pandemic,” Christine Roussel, Pharmacy Director at Doylestown Health, said in a news release Thursday.

Dr. Les Szekely, an intensivist who has worked in the COVID intensive care unit at the hospital since March, reported no pain or side effects from receiving the vaccination.

“It didn’t hurt. I’ve been watching the safety data and it’s outstanding,” Dr. Szekely said. “It’s super efficacious. I can’t wait until everyone is vaccinated and we can look at this in the rearview mirror.”

The first 75 employees to receive the dose were clinicians who will administer the vaccine, as well as physicians, nurses, housekeepers and others who work in COVID units and volunteered. The vaccination of all front-line and essential workers begins Friday and continues through next week, with Doylestown Health expecting to vaccinate 400 staff members every day.

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a second dose 21 days after the first injection. Additional shipments of the vaccine are expected in January but the delivery date and quantity are unknown as of Thursday afternoon, Doylestown Health Spokesperson Beth Long said.

Lower Bucks Hospital in Bristol and St. Mary's Medical Center in Langhorne are expected to receive a few thousand doses by Monday.

“It is amazing how far we’ve come in 10 months even though it seems the pandemic has dragged on,” Scott Levy, MD, Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of Doylestown Health, said in a statement. “The speed with which the vaccines were developed also ensured safety and efficacy – I’ve never seen anything like it in more than 30 years of practice.”

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