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Jamaican-born United States-based nurse Shauna Chin has given the thumbs up to Sandra Lindsay, who was the first person to get the COVID-19 vaccine in New York.

Lindsay, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Centre in Queens, got the shot yesterday.

Chin, a retired army medic, said at first she thought it was mandatory to get the COVID-19 vaccine to keep her job, but has learned that the hospital where she works does not make it a requirement.

"My brain was already prepared for this but now I have a choice, I am saying I don't know. But I am leaning towards taking it as I would rather have some sort of a barrier between myself and the patients versus out there being vulnerable," she said.

Like Chin, Lindsay was born and raised in Jamaica. She migrated to the US in 1986 to further her education. New York is getting an initial shipment of 170,000 doses.

Chin said that while there are persons who believe the vaccine is part of a conspiracy, she feels comfortable with taking it as the manufacturers have gone through the correct protocols.

Correct protocol

"While we are talking about the vaccine being rushed, it doesn't mean that they have not gone through the correct protocol. We aren't the first line people who will be taking the vaccine as there were persons who have tested and tried the vaccine and months would have passed and they have already determined what the major side effects are, if any, so that is important to say," she said.

Chin has treated some of the sickest COVID-19 patients in the US, and has watched some take their last breath. Among those who stand out in her memory was a 32-year-old police woman who had no prior illnesses or underlying issues.

"I have seen a lot of persons returning with so many variety of symptoms that they just cannot shake. They were well before the virus and it triggered all these comorbidities in a usually healthy person. That level of illness I know I can't manage it," she said. "I remember this young lady who was in the prime of her life and in top shape battling for her life in ICU. I thought she was going to get over it but by day 60, this virus threw everything at her and she eventually died. We did a lot of clinical trials on her, we did everything we could but she died. The hardest conversation was with her mother where we were discussing end-of-life decision," she said.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first coronavirus vaccine last week. It was developed jointly by Pfizer and BioNTech and requires two doses several weeks apart.

A few other countries have authorised the vaccine, including the United Kingdom, which started vaccinating people last week, and Canada, which began doing so on Monday.