Filipino nurse administers first coronavirus vaccine

NHS nurse May Parsons injects Margaret Keenan the coronavirus vaccine.

The first vaccine to prevent the coronavirus was administered by a May Parsons, a Filipina nurse in Great Britain. 

Parsons, a nurse in the UK's National Health Service, gave the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to 90-year-old Margaret Keenan.

"It's a huge honor to be the first person in the country to deliver a COVID-19 jab to a patient," Parsons said in a statement released by NHS. "I'm just glad that I'm able to play a part in this historic day."

“The last few months have been tough for all of us working in the NHS, but now it feels like there is light at the end of the tunnel.”

May, originally from the Philippines has worked in the NHS for the last 24 years and been at University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire since 2003. She is one of thousands of nurses recruited from the Philippines to fill up the healthcare staffing gap in Great Britain.

The phased vaccination programme will see patients aged 80 and above who are already attending hospital as an outpatient, and those who are being discharged home after a hospital stay, among the first to receive the life-saving jab.

“I feel so privileged to be the first person vaccinated against COVID-19, it’s the best early birthday present I could wish for because it means I can finally look forward to spending time with my family and friends in the New Year after being on my own for most of the year,” said Keenan.

“I can’t thank May and the NHS staff enough who have looked after me tremendously, and my advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90 then you can have it too!”

"My advice to anyone offered the vaccine is to take it – if I can have it at 90, then you can have it too," she said. In 21 days, she will have to receive another booster injection.

In a tweet, UK Ambassador to the Philippines Daniel Pruce also recognized Parsons, adding she is "one of the many thousands of Filipino healthcare workers making such an enormous contribution to the NHS."

This is part of the agency's biggest vaccine campaign that will prioritize those aged 80 and above and who are already going to participating hospitals as outpatient; those who work in care homes; and health care workers at high risk.

The UK recently granted drugmaker Pfizer and its partner BioNTech temporary authorization for emergency use of the COVID-19 vaccine they developed, which already showed 95% efficacy with no safety concerns.

Since the coronavirus began spreading like wildfire across the globe, pharmaceutical companies have been racing to find a vaccine to the previously unknown virus.

Britain's government has secured 800,000 doses of the vaccine so far, enough to give 400,000 people two doses each, the government said. Pfizer and BioNTech were the first to come up with a vaccine in the West. The Boston-based Moderna is reportedly on the verge of a vaccine.

Healthcare personnel and the vulnerable elderly were given priority for the shots.

To immunize the rest of the United Kingdom's 68 million people, health officials must solve enormous logistical challenges. Vials of the vaccine must be kept frozen at minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit).

The United States government in July reached an agreement with Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech for 100 million doses of their Covid-19 vaccine if it proved safe and effective. The Food and Drug Administration is set to meet Thursday (Dec. 10) to review the companies’ emergency use application.

Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a member of Pfizer’s board, told CNBC on Tuesday the company’s offers to provide the U.S. with additional doses of its coronavirus vaccine in 2021 were declined by the Trump administration.