TORRANCE, Calif. — For nine months, Dr. Christopher Brown has been walking around his hospital carrying a heavy burden.
In April, just as the pandemic was taking hold, Brown, an internal medicine doctor at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, noticed he wasn’t feeling well.
“I had a mild cough for a couple of days but most notably I had the loss of smell, and that was before we understood that being a very prominent symptom for people who experienced COVID-19,” he said.
A few days later, his wife got sick, only her symptoms were more severe. Luckily, they both recovered without the need for hospitalization. But knowing he may have put his wife in danger was a hard pill to swallow.
“It’s heartbreaking. It’s really heartbreaking,” he said.
Today, however, Dr. Brown can finally breathe a sigh of relief as he and thousands of frontline workers begin their second round of the COVID-19 vaccine, bringing the potential end of the pandemic that much closer.
“I’m feeling great,” Dr. Brown said soon after receiving his booster shot. “Knowing that I got the second dose, I feel that much more confident that we’re taking that first step towards eradicating the virus.”
Frontline workers are disproportionately affected by COVID. More than 28,000 of them have tested positive in Los Angeles County since the pandemic began.
According to The New England Journal of Medicine, the second vaccine dose results in a 95% effectiveness against the virus in persons 16 years of age or older, though it’s unclear whether the vaccine stops transmission.
The vaccinations at Harbor-UCLA come as hospitals are bracing for a post-holiday surge that is expected to further overwhelm healthcare workers already stretched to the limit.
“There is so much COVID in the community that our staff are getting COVID often at home,” said Harbor-UCLA Chief Medical Officer and CEO, Dr. Anish Mahajan. “This has resulted in staff shortages for us. But now, hopefully fewer of our staff will get sick, and we’ll be able to take care of the bigger and bigger number of COVID patients coming into the hospital.”
No one knows how long the vaccine’s immunity will last. Even so, Dr. Brown said now he can sleep a little easier.
“There’s a big sigh of relief," he said. "It makes me feel a little more optimistic that I can be safe and that my family can be safe.”