Northwell’s Sandra Lindsay is first American to get updated COVID vaccine

Dr. Michelle Chester, senior director of Employee Health Services at Northwell Health, administers the 2023-24 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Nurse Sandra Lindsay, vice president of public health advocacy at Northwell. Credit Northwell Health.

Sandra Lindsay, the Northwell Health nurse who was the first American to get Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine, made history again on Wednesday as the first American to receive the updated vaccine.

“It’s important that people understand that COVID is still around and can still severely affect an individual,” Lindsay, vice president of public health advocacy at Northwell, said in a statement.

“Having worked through the darkest days of the pandemic and seen the devastating effects it can have, I tell people not to take chances,” she added. “We have powerful weapons like vaccines to prevent those devastating outcomes.”

This was the third COVID-19 vaccine – and sixth, including boosters – taken by Lindsay, who despite working on the frontlines, never contracted COVID.

The newest vaccine was approved Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Northwell has administered about 800,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine since the end of 2020. The FDA and CDC have said the vaccine is safe and effective for anyone ages 6 months and older. Northwell Health will offer both Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to its employees and the general public through its ambulatory network.

Also receiving the updated vaccine on Wednesday were Dr. Adam Berman, associate chair of emergency medicine at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park; Mozhdeh Mehrabian, a respiratory therapist at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset; and Dr. Mangala Narasimhan, senior vice president of critical care services at Northwell.