Public health nurse Starla Andres gives the COVID-19 vaccine to respiratory therapist Sarah Mackenzie, who is among the first to receive the shot in Red Deer on Friday. (Photo: AHS)

By Troy Gillard

“A SHOT OF HOPE”

Respiratory therapist excited to be among Red Deer’s first COVID-19 vaccine recipients

Dec 23, 2020 | 4:46 PM

Sarah MacKenzie could barely contain her excitement over being one of the first healthcare workers in Red Deer to be inoculated for COVID-19.

The respiratory therapist received what will be her first of two doses of the Pfizer Biontech COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday afternoon.

“I’m very excited. I’m extremely grateful to be among the first,” MacKenzie said. “This is kind of the beginning of the end of a very long and difficult time for everybody.”

Premier Jason Kenney announced yesterday that 1,950 doses of the vaccine were headed to Red Deer as another shipment of over 25,000 doses arrived in Alberta. Intensive care unit workers, respiratory therapists and long-term care home workers will be among the first to receive the vaccine, as the province administers them in phases.

MacKenzie says COVID-19 has presented a unique set of challenges when it comes to doing her job.

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“I worked through H1N1 and I’ve never seen it quite like this. It’s been an extremely stressful and challenging time, not just for respiratory therapists but for all healthcare providers,” she shared. “We’ve really had to band together, have some difficult conversations and make a plan on how to continue to provide exceptional care.”

A respiratory therapist since 2007, MacKenzie has seen first-hand the devastating effects COVID-19 can have on those who contract it.

“One client specifically, during the first wave, she was 42-years-old and previously healthy and when she left the hospital, she was on oxygen and walking with a walker. Had quite a lot of work to do in terms of recovery,” she recalled.

“The mortality rate, it might be one per cent but it’s not ‘die or be 100 per cent fine,’ unfortunately. That totally neglects any of the long haul symptoms and things that people who’ve survived COVID-19 have to go through. They’re realizing there are a lot of long-lasting effects on sense of taste and smell, cardiac, kind of everything.”

Dr. Eduard Barnard, who works as an anesthesiologist and in the ICU at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre, also received the COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday. Although he wishes he could allow his parents, in their eighties, to get the vaccine before him, he is thankful to ease his fears of infecting a patient or his parents.

“There have been a lot of challenges I never thought I would have experienced in my lifetime (due to COVID). Back when I was studying medicine, we thought we had all infectious disease under control. For this to be approved in one year’s time when previous vaccines took decades to develop, it’s thanks to the ingenuity of the researchers, it’s just like the whole world has gotten together, the top scientists to work on this to find the best possible solution to this world phenomenon,” Dr. Barnard said.

MacKenzie says she has no reservations about receiving a COVID-19 vaccine that was approved in such short order.

“To be alive in a time where science and medicine can test, develop and approve a vaccine in less than a year is a tremendous accomplishment. It’s something that truly needs to be celebrated rather than being hesitant because of the timeline. That’s just what medicine and science are able to do when you have unlimited global funding.”

MacKenzie encourages anyone who’s hesitant or has questions about the vaccine to speak with a healthcare professional, and to make sure you’re making decisions on information that’s factual.

“Get off Facebook, talk to trusted healthcare professionals. Find an expert and make sure your expert has medical integrity, meaning they’re not in it for an ulterior motive and they actually have correct, up-to-date information.”

As a healthcare worker, MacKenzie acknowledges that she receives vaccination updates on a regular basis, but says this one has an altogether different feel.

“At the end of a world-wide global pandemic, this is a shot of hope.”