Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center Administers First Round of COVID-19 Vaccines to Health Care Workers

Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center (Baylor St. Luke’s) administered the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Baylor St. Luke’s was among 19 sites in Texas to receive thousands of doses on Tuesday.

Baylor St. Luke’s has proactively prepared to receive, store, and administer vaccinations and is expected to begin administering the first vaccines Tuesday afternoon.

“Today is a day of hope for all of us as we receive the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and prepare to begin administering them,” said Liz Youngblood, president, Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center. “We hope to be able to gather with our family and friends again soon and that people’s lives and livelihoods will be restored. We see this historic day as the beginning of the end of the pandemic.”

Among the first health care workers that received the vaccine were registered nurses Mary Ju  and Anna Gonzalez. Dr. Pat Herlihy, Chief of Critical Care, and Dr. Joe Young, ER Director, were also among the first to  receive the vaccine.

Baylor St. Luke’s is following CDC and state guidelines for vaccine prioritization which includes health care workers who are at higher risk due to where they work as well as other factors. At Baylor St. Luke’s, safety is our priority, and we only administer vaccines that the FDA has recommended as safe and effective. While there are always unknowns when a new vaccine is developed – including duration of protection, long term safety, or how the vaccine might respond to virus mutations in the future – there are enough data available to know that the vaccine being offered is safe and should be encouraged. 

For more information, visit www.stlukeshealth.org/bslmcinternational.