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Butte hospital administers first doses of COVID-19 vaccine to staff

Posted at 6:30 PM, Dec 17, 2020
and last updated 2020-12-18 11:53:38-05

The staff at St. James HealthCare in Butte were eager to get vaccinated with the new COVID-19 vaccine and encourage others to do the same when the time comes.

“Roll your sleeve up and take it. It’s the best thing that you can do for yourself and everybody else in the world again to get over this problem that we have,” said Dr. Mike Gallagher.

St. James received 975 doses of the Pfizer vaccine this week and began administering it to front-line doctors and staff. Health officials are pleased with how quickly the vaccine was made ready.

“When we first started hearing about this virus back in January I thought, ‘wow, this is going to be a really long dark road.’ You know vaccines often take up to four years, five years to come to fruition, and the fact that human science and engineering have come up with a vaccine that viable this soon is just amazing,” said Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jennifer Davenport.

Health officials are encouraging everyone to get vaccinated once the vaccine becomes available to the general public.

“Because we need to get on with our lives, everyone is very excited to get one with their lives, be able to hang out with the family and friends, to be able to travel, to have work-life and the economy back to normal and this is the only way we are going to get there,” said Davenport.