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Health Workers 'Feeling Good As Hell' As Hospitals Begin COVID Vaccine Injections

Nurse Melissa Valentin applies the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a health worker at the Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tuesday. The vaccine was granted emergency use authorization last week.
Carlos Giusti
/
AP
Nurse Melissa Valentin applies the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to a health worker at the Ashford Presbyterian Community Hospital in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Tuesday. The vaccine was granted emergency use authorization last week.

5, 6, 7, 8!

Health care workers in Boston are "feeling good as hell" over the arrival of the long-awaited COVID-19 vaccine.

Masked employees in scrubs, medical gowns, office attire, and what's proving to be very popular camel-colored coat, performed a choreographed dance routine outside of the Boston Medical Center as inside, health care workers prepared to begin delivering injections to some of those most exposed to the virus — health care workers.

"Why I love my job [at the BMC}," President and CEO Kate Walsh jubilantly posted on Twitter on Monday afternoon.

"Teams of people working to safely and equitably distribute vaccines to their front line colleagues getting cheered on by their friends celebrating the arrival of the vaccines!"

"A great day, a great place," Walsh added above the video showing nearly a dozen people hair-tossing to Lizzo's joyful anthem, "Good As Hell."

The first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine were delivered across the country on Monday. Distribution of the medicine began just days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the vaccine, which was developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Clinical studies show it is 95% effective.

The turnaround from the first appearance of the coronavirus in the U.S., in February of this year, to a vaccine has been nothing short of unprecedented.

Still, people are anxious to return to so-called normal life. Among them is an unnamed and slightly off-key singing man, who recorded a parody of The Police's 1978 hit, Roxanne.

"Vaaaaaaaccine," he yowls, in a video posted to Twitter by user Al Fleishman.

The song is chock full of optimism about the lifesaving injections: "Vaccine, you're about to come out and save lives ... Coronavirus I won't have to spend my days locked up inside. We can open up all stores in sight. Folks can make their money, now it won't be too long until it's right."

The not-short tune plays over a hodgepodge montage of popular television show clips, including the Seinfeld gang doing a happy dance and Breaking Bad's Walter White winking at the camera. There's also plenty of stock images and what seems like amateur video of a man in a bear costume falling off a medical exam table.

Other vaccines appear to be on the way, spreading hope that the current wave of coronavirus-related deaths may be the dark before the dawn. Pfizer rival Moderna looks close to receiving FDA authorization for its vaccine.

The neck-and-neck competition between the two companies has spawned its own set of memes, making the social media beef, one of the most 2020 things ever.

Though Pfizer clearly won the race to be first, here's an outstanding take on what has been the most anticipated walk-off of the year.

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Vanessa Romo is a reporter for NPR's News Desk. She covers breaking news on a wide range of topics, weighing in daily on everything from immigration and the treatment of migrant children, to a war-crimes trial where a witness claimed he was the actual killer, to an alleged sex cult. She has also covered the occasional cat-clinging-to-the-hood-of-a-car story.