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'It's A Day All Of Us Have Been Waiting For Forever': ICU Nurse Gets The COVID-19 Vaccination

Lilly Olson is a nurse in the medical ICU at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She was among the first frontline health care workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this month.
Courtesy of Lilly Olson
Lilly Olson is a nurse in the medical ICU at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She was among the first frontline health care workers to get the COVID-19 vaccine earlier this month.

This month, Iowa's frontline health care workers became the first group to get the COVID-19 vaccines. Lilly Olson, a nurse in the medical ICU at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, describes her experience.

Iowa’s health care workers have been on the frontlines of this pandemic for months, often putting themselves at risk of getting the virus in order to care for their sick patients.

But this month, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines got emergency use authorization from the FDA, and Iowa is expecting to get 138,300 doses this month. Many of these initial doses are going to front line health care workers.

One of these workers is Lilly Olson, a medical ICU nurse at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. She recorded an audio diary for IPR during her recent 12-hour Friday shift when she got her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

Natalie Krebs is IPR's Health Reporter