US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her COVID-19 vaccine live on television Tuesday and urged the public to trust the process. A mask-wearing Harris received the first of her two shots at United Medical Center, located in an area of Washington, DC with a large African-American population. Her husband Doug Emhoff was also to be vaccinated.
Patricia Cummings, clinical nurse manager at United Medical Center, administered the vaccine. Cummings was born in Guyana and is the daughter of two Guyanese immigrants to the United States.
“I trust the scientists, and it is the scientists who created and approved this vaccine, so I urge everyone when it’s your turn, get vaccinated. It’s about saving your life, the life of your family member, and the life of your community” — the VP-elect said on receiving the vaccine.
Pfizer’s principal research scientist, Vidia Surendra Roopchand, was also born in Guyana and grew up on the tiny island of Wakenaam, located in the Essequibo River. Asked how he feels to be making history as an immigrant and a Caribbean immigrant from Guyana, as part of the team to deliver the first vaccine to possibly help curb the COVID-19 virus, Roopchand said “it was a humbling experience more than anything else!”
VP-Elect Harris will become the first Black and Indian-American vice president when she takes office on January 20, as well as the first woman in the role.
Looking for any one who knows descendants of Hilda Harris of Zeelandia Wakenaam.