UPMC Workers Get First Pittsburgh Coronavirus Vaccinations

PITTSBURGH, PA — The largest vaccination effort in U.S. history reached Pittsburgh Monday, as several UPMC employees were among the first people in southwestern Pennsylvania to receive Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine.

“I’m very honored that UPMC had me do this, and I will continue to do proper things as far as masking, social distancing and washing my hands,” said Charmaine Pykosh an advanced nurse practitioner who has worked at UPMC for over 30 years. Pykosh was the first UPMC employee to receive the vaccine.

Under Operation Warp Speed, the Department of Defense and other agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will manage allocation and distribution of the vaccine.

In Pittsburgh, UPMC's dDr. Graham Snyder, said that while the general public will not be able to receive vaccinations in the initial phase, UPMC officials are optimistic that it will be able to vaccinate its frontline health care workers who wish to receive it by the end of January.

The vaccination program for UPMC’s health care workers is voluntary, and vaccinations will be made available to the public as soon as possible. Initial efforts will focus on health care personnel, emergency medical service first responders and residents and staff of congregate care settings.

The Allegheny Health Network indicated it also was prepared to receive the initial vaccine shipments.

The state Department of Health plans to distribute the vaccine out to Pennsylvanians in three phases. In the first phase, there may be limited supply of vaccine doses available and initial efforts will focus on reaching health care personnel, emergency medical services first responders and residents and staff of congregate care settings.

In the second phase, a larger number of doses will be available. Efforts will concentrate on first-phase critical populations who were not yet vaccinated as well as the general population.

The third phase will focus on ensuring the entire population has access to the vaccine.

In testimony before Congress last week, state health secretary Dr. Rachel Levine detailed the enormity of the task of getting the vaccine to everyone who wants it.

In her testimony, Dr. Levine emphasized the importance of mitigation efforts and detailed the troubles surrounding the transportation and storage of the coronavirus vaccine.

“The logistics of the vaccine distribution are complicated and the degree of coordination among federal, state, and local levels of government required for this enormous undertaking is unprecedented,” Levine said.

“While we, along with public health officials throughout the country, spent countless hours preparing, this mission is fraught with significant challenges that go well beyond just transporting the vaccine from Point A to Point B."

Those challenge include finding sufficient funding to rapidly execute a timely, comprehensive, and equitable vaccination campaign and establishing coordination and communication between federal, state, and local health agencies to distribute the vaccine, Levine said.