Covid Lessons Learned Two Years In

vice President of Public health Advocacy at Northwell Health. She enjoins us right now on the phone from New Hyde Park. It's good to have you back with us, Dr Lindsay. How are you. I am doing sometatastic. Thank you very

much for having me on. You know, as I was preparing for this, I was thinking back to what things were like two years ago, and it's pretty remarkable because even though we are still dealing with COVID, we're certainly dealing with it in a different way, and we definitely have the tools to go out and face the world in a safer way. I'm talking about vaccines here. At the same time, though, we're seeing enough ticking cases. We're seeing mask uses, mask use inside coming back. How are

you feeling about things right now? I'm I'm feeling very hopeful as I did UM on that day two years ago when I got vaccinated. We have made tremendous progress. We're able to you know, enjoy the things we love. We're able to hug again and gather again. UM. And I still feel very hopeful. Um, despite the upticking cases, not to the extent that it was two years ago or a year ago. UM, we're seeing fluent rs V

on the rise. But we have flu vaccines and we now have uh, you know, a merit of COVID vaccines, we have boosters. UM. We just need people to understand that COVID is not finished with us yet, and so we still need to act responsibly and to get ourselves protected. And for those who are watching on YouTube and I blew our critic, we're just showing the footage and I remember seeing it on all of the news station is when you got that shot. I mean it was a

big deal. And I think, you know, started a flow of prominent people, whether it was celebrities, politicians, the president. UM are Actually I don't think, I don't I don't think at the time it was President Trump. No, it was President Biden. Well, no, President Biden was President Biden. Okay, see I'm in like a time work, um, but it was you really set a tone. Tell us though, what was going through your mind when you were getting that shot.

You know at that time, you know, having gone through the pandemic and dealing with this day today just kind of hardship, grief and suffering. I was just ready to get vaccinated. I felt like I was walking around with the world on my shoulders and this was a ray of hope and I just could not wait, um to get vaccinated. Mind you, I didn't go into this blindly. Right soon I heard that vaccines were being developed, I started reading up on everything that I could get my

hand on that was published that was credible. I spoke to my physicians, I spoke to people that I trusted before I got to that point. So when I got in the room, I was at ease. I was ready. Cameras around here and lights and I was paying I was I was not paying attention to all of that, And at that point I didn't know I was going to be the first one. I just wanted to get vaccinated.

I just wanted to instill public confidence that look, we've gone through a difficult time at dark time, and now is our time to get out of this and to

fight back. And I just want to make mention of a study that was published today that was done by researchers from the Commonwealth Fund as well as Yale School of Public Health that found that of the sixty five six d and FI to five million doses of vaccine administered to Americans in the past two years, that has stopped eighteen million additional hospitalizations and three million additional debts, saving the country approximately one trillion dollars. It's pretty remarkable marketable. Yeah,

it's absolutely remarkable. I should say, Caroline, I did you know, going the way back machine, take out our calculators and did the math, and we came to the conclusion that if we go two years ago back to two years ago today, we would still have President Trump in office. But President elect Biden was the one who you know, publicly got a shot U during that time. So h it's hard to remember. It's been a time work. When we were thinking about it was two years ago that

first vaccine. It's hard to imagine. I mean, I'm five shots in terms of five shots, and we were just trying to keep make sense of it. No, I'm four shots. Oh you're four. Sorry, I'm five shots in UM. But Dr Linday, this is the world we are in when you got the shot. I'm assuming they were people in your world, in your orbit, personally professionally who were still maybe going into it uncomfortable getting the shot. Did it change their mind? Oh? Absolutely, And so many people have

reached out to me. UM. Just this past weekend, I was doing my Christmas shopping and this lady came up to me and she just started saying, thank you, thank you, thank you. The entire store kind of turned around and looked at her, like what is she talking about. She's like, thank you for you know, just instill in the confidence in me and giving me the courage to go on

and get vaccinated. I've had people come up to me and say I had made up my mind that I was never ever going to get vaccinated, and just seeing you they're calmly taking the vaccine and realizing that despite what social media was putting out that twenty four hours later, I was in an ic you that you're still here with us you're still using your platform to advert hate and to encourage people to do their own research, you know, ask the questions that you want answered. Speak to your

trusted people in your life, but do something. It's good to hear. Dr lindsay that you have You've had a positive experience over the last couple of years when it comes to people who have approached you. But I'm also wondering, in the first few hours, the first few days, what you experienced online, And because we have heard so much about the way that people have been attacked online for their views and just for for stuff they've done, what

did you experience? Yeah? So, um, you know, after the first couple of hours after getting the vaccine, perhaps minutes, um, there were people online that we're saying that I was stupid. Did I not hear about the Tuskegee study, that I was being used as a guinea pig? Um, I'm just another example. Um, I'm being paid for this. I'm a paid spokesperson for this, none of which is true. But you know I don't get into fights online. Instead, I just turned that around into you know, the positive. Yes,

I'm well educated. I know about the Tuskege study. But here is what I want you to know about the vaccine and how I came to my decision about getting vaccinated. You know, I'm curious to at your hospital. North wall Is is huge, uh in New York State, and I do wonder are you seeing now an uptick in COVID cases again or is it a case of maybe there's cases, but they're not resulting in an uptick in hospitalizations. So since the beginning of the pandemic, we have been very busy,

to say the least. We've taken care of over three hundred and twenty thousand patients, performed more than three million diagnostic tests for the virus, and have administered more than seven hundred and fifty thousands vaccinations. We are seeing an uptick, but not to the extent that we were two years ago, and we don't have our ic use overcrowded like we were two years ago. So far far less a fraction less than where we were two years ago. It cannot

be compared, and that is thanks to vaccinations. It would have been in a much different place had we not have these vaccines on board. Dr Linda, it's pretty incredible to see, not what you've done over your career which has spent close to thirty years, but just over the last two years when it comes to vaccine advocacy, you were given the I should say, the Presidential Medal of

Freedom by President Biden earlier this year. Just in the last minute that we have with you, tell us about that experience and and how you felt that is just a real I couldn't believe when I got the call.

I thought it was a prank call until I checked my email and saw that this was real because it was followed up with an email, And you know, immediately I just thought about what it meant for me and my family, which is proud, but also what it means for people that I identify with immigrants, woman, black woman, Caribbean woman, Jamaican and to think that, you know, in my earlier years, all I dreamt of was becoming an

earth no one ever dreams of. Okay, I want to get the Presidential Medal of Freedom one at least not me, but here I here, I was getting this high honor bestowed upon me. And I really just share this with everyone that I mentioned that I identify with, along with my health care workers as well and my nurses and now your id Bagine scrubs are at the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian. It's it's pretty remarkable.

Dr Lindsay, always great to speak with you, to thank you so much for taking the time and joining us. Dr Sandra Lindsay, Vice President of Public Health Advocacy at north Well Health