A Negrense nurse working in the United Kingdom expressed elation over reports that their compatriot, May Parsons, made history as the first health frontliner in the world to administer the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against the coronavirus disease 2019.
Parsons, a British-Filipina, had been working in the UK’s National Health Service for 24 years. She administered thee vaccine at a local hospital first to 90-year-old Margaret Keenan as Patient 1A and to William Shakespeare, Patient B, and namesake of English literature icon.Parsons became an overnight sensation as news sites and newspapers around the world carried her story that went viral
“I am so proud and delighted to know that a Filipino nurse was the first ever to administer the COVID vaccine in the world. Kudos to all the frontliners. Keep up the good work and keep safe,” Luna Brandy Leal, an alumna of Riverside College from Bacolod City, told Negros Now Daily.
Leal, who had been working for 14 years in Deeside Care Home in Aberdeen, Scotland, belongs to Riverside College Nursing Batch 1990.
She also recounted how Filipino nurses and health workers struggled in the midst of the pandemic as many of them, including her, were infected with the coronavirus. In fact, she said, she is scheduled to “graduate” from isolation on Friday, Dec. 11.
“Filipino frontliners across the UK were among those greatly affected by the pandemic. I, myself, am a COVID survivor,” Leal confided..
