Dubach got her shot along with 19 others in an event open to the media Monday afternoon. It came as the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were used in Colorado after FDA approval over the weekend.
“It feels no worse than getting a flu shot,” she said.
Nurse Daphne Dubach was feeling fine in the hours after her vaccination for COVID-19.
“Arm’s a little bit sore, but feeling pretty good,” she said on Monday night.
Dubach is a registered nurse as UCHealth Memorial Hospital in Colorado Springs.
Dubach came to Colorado years ago to get a doctorate in neuroscience and genetic research but gave it up to become a nurse.
“I was pretty excited that we might be able to save some lives and get our lives back to normal,” she said about electing to get the vaccine. “If we can do anything to protect (patients), if we unintentionally get infected and pass it on to someone else it would be a difficult thing to live with.”
Colorado got three shipments of the Pfizer vaccine Monday. More are scheduled to arrive Tuesday and Wednesday. The vaccine is being sent around the state with hospitals getting the first doses to vaccinate those who work on the front lines, like Dubach.
A total of 46,800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine will arrive this week. Over 90,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine are expected after its approval next week. It has hospitals moving quickly to implement plans to start vaccinations.
“Immunizing people is part of our core business,” said Dr. Shauna Gulley, chief clinical officer for Centura Health hospitals in Colorado.
The COVID vaccine may offer challenges with its requirements that it be kept at below -80 degrees until within days of use, but they feel it’s within their usual expertise to implement its use.
“We will have received 5,755 vaccines at Centura Health and we’ll have all of them administered within 72 hours for our health care workers,” she said.
And that includes not only doctors and nurses, but other workers, who also “have contact with patient products.”
The vaccine will have to be given morning until night.
“At one of our larger facilities we will have eight vaccine teams set up simultaneously to give vaccine from 7 in the morning until 10 at night every day.”
“We’ll let the science guide us,” said Dr. Gulley.
Not all are ready to be vaccinated, though. Centura did a survey among its workers.
“And what we learned from that survey was 92 percent of physicians are willing to take the vaccine now if offered and 66 percent of health care workers overall are ready and willing to take the two shot series.”
Which led to the question about whether non-vaccinated health care workers will eventually be placed in other work areas.
“We have not year entertained the idea of moving any health care worker away from COVID-19 care because we need all health care workers on deck to care for our communities today,” said Gulley.
Dubach and other health care workers who received shots Monday were still working. Dubach was glad to be among the first.
“A lot of families have lost loved ones and a lot of families are having long term effects from this virus. So if we can prevent that from happening to more people, then, I’m all for it.”
