She did not exactly volunteer to be the first Longmonter to get the COVID-19 vaccination, but Dr. Leslie Armstrong also did not hesitate to get the shot Wednesday shortly after noon.
With Armstrong’s five-year-old daughter clinging to her - and doctors, nurses and Longmont’s mayor looking on - Armstrong took the injection from RN Jennifer Kiley without flinching.
ER physician Leslie Armstrong gets consoled by daughter Coppelia after Armstrong got her Covid shot Wednesday at Longmont United Hospital (photo by Monte Whaley)
“It pretty much felt like a flu shot,” said Armstrong, a sixth-generation Longmonter and emergency department physician at Longmont United Hospital, or LUH. “I really didn’t feel much at all.”
Armstrong was still aware of the implications of the vaccination, one of 275 that will be distributed to frontline associates at the hospital through Friday, said Dr. Antony Pearson, chief medical officer at LUH.
LUH was among the hospitals and health care facilities in Colorado to get the first two shipments of the vaccine this week, according to the Colorado Department of Health and Environment.
Those eligible for the vaccine are healthcare workers who have direct contact with COVID-19 patients for 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period, according to the CDHE. Also eligible, are long term facility staff and residents.
Armstrong said her work in the emergency department gives her daily contact with those infected with the deadly virus. COVID, she said, victimizes young and old and often leaves them isolated in the hospital without contact with friends and family.
“It’s been devastating,” Armstrong said. “It hits young adults and the elderly. We can’t allow visitors in to see them, so a lot of the time, I squeeze their hands, squeeze their legs, and try and make them feel not so alone.”
Dr. Leslie Armstrong gets ready for her Covid shot at LUH Wednrsday as daughter Coppelia looks on. (photo by Monte Whaley)
Armstrong, the mother of five children, was accompanied by daughter Coppelia, who watched wide eyed as Armstrong stepped up and took her COVID shot as phones and cameras flashed.
Armstrong said she didn’t seek to be the first to take the shot at LUH. But she didn’t flinch when her regular schedule called for her to show up Wednesday to get vaccinated.
“This is huge, this is wonderful,” Armstrong said. “I know what it took to get this vaccine to this point. All the work and people involved from researchers, to the people who delivered the vaccine, to everybody. This was an incredible job.”
Armstrong will have to get a booster shot on Wednesday, Jan. 6.
Pearson said the vaccine’s arrival at LUH on Tuesday left him unable to sleep. “This means so much,” he said. “It means when we can get everybody fully vaccinated we can get back to normal, maybe by July 4,” Pearson said.
“Businesses will be reopened and doctors and nurses working on the front lines of the hospitals, won’t have to be afraid,” he said.
There are some unanswered questions about the vaccination, including whether those who get shots will still have to wear masks, Pearson said.
For now, he said he is happy with Wednesday’s first step in caging the virus. The event is so monumental, the vial that emptied the vaccine in Armstrong’s arm will be given to the Longmont Museum, Pearson said..
“This is a huge, huge scientific achievement,” Pearson said. “Maybe one of the biggest in our lifetime.”
