Pfizer/BioNTech COVID vaccine arrives at Upstate University Hospital

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 arrived at Upstate University Hospital on Tuesday morning.

Upstate vaccinated the first hospital workers at midday in front of the media.

“As the vaccine gets delivered throughout the nation and as our frontline workers roll up their sleeves, we now have an effective tool to fight this deadly virus,” Upstate University Hospital CEO Robert Corona said in a statement. “I am proud of our scientists, our healthcare workers and those who participate in clinical trials to save others as we challenge this pandemic. I am especially proud of those fighting at the front line…nurses, environmental services personnel, other health professionals like respiratory therapists and our physicians.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 11 granted emergency use authorization for the vaccine, and Upstate Medical University is a clinical trial for the vaccine.

More than 300 people from the local community are participating in the trial, the medical school said.

The Pfzier/BioNtech vaccine is “full of hope” and gives us perhaps our “greatest resource” in the fight against COVID-19, Dr. Mantosh Dewan, president of Upstate Medical University, said.

“I applaud researchers around the globe for their unrelenting work at developing this vaccine. I also applaud the more than 300 individuals who enrolled in this vaccine’s clinical trial at Upstate (as well as the literally thousands more who were on a waiting list) and who have helped to bring us to this day,” Dr. Dewan said.