Dr. Elizabeth Buck, right, gets her first of two COVID-19 vaccination shots administered by registered nurse Ashley Gavin at the Saranac Lake Hudson Headwaters Health Network office in the Adirondack Medical Center building on Tuesday. Buck will return in 28 days for a second dose of the vaccine. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Cerbone)

SARANAC LAKE — Dr. Elizabeth Buck was at home on Tuesday enjoying her day off when she got the call.

The Hudson Headwaters Health Network office in Saranac Lake had received doses of the Moderna vaccine, and she was eligible to get one. She didn’t hesitate. Buck drove to work to get her shot.

For Buck, who has practiced in Saranac Lake for 25 years, getting vaccinated — and vaccinating others — is nothing new. When nurse Ashley Gavin brandished a needle and quickly administered the vaccine into her right arm, Buck didn’t flinch.

“Like any other shot,” she said, after Gavin placed a bandage on her arm. The vaccination process took just a few minutes.

All of the staff at HHHN’s offices in Saranac Lake, which absorbed Adirondack Internal Medicine and Pediatrics this year, will be able to receive vaccines, according to spokesperson Jane Hooper.

Buck, who practices internal medicine and pediatrics, received the first Moderna vaccine at the HHHN office in Saranac Lake. Moderna’s two-shot vaccine was approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration this past Friday, and was later endorsed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In about 28 days, Buck will receive her second dose of the Moderna vaccine.

The first doses got to Saranac Lake quicker than expected, HHHN Pediatrician Patricia Monroe said.

“Our understanding is that the second dose(s) will be shipped within the next 26-28 days, as per (state) Health Department and CDC guidance,” Hooper wrote.

Moderna’s is the second coronavirus vaccine to receive that FDA authorization, behind one manufactured by Pfizer, another two-shot vaccine. Unlike Pfizer’s, Moderna’s vaccine doesn’t need to be stored in ultra-cold freezers, which are in short supply at rural hospitals in the North Country region.

The state of New York had received 630,000 vaccine doses as of Tuesday, between shipments of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, according to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office. The state is expected to receive another 300,000 doses next week.

Vaccines have already been administered to about 50,000 New Yorkers as of Tuesday. Under the state’s vaccine distribution plan, essential health care workers and high-risk nursing home residents are the first to be eligible for coronavirus vaccines.

Next to be vaccinated will be first responders; teachers, school staff and child care providers; public health workers; high-risk people and essential front line workers who have regular contact with the public. Then vaccinations will open up to everyone over the age of 65 and those under the age of 65 with underlying conditions, then all other essential workers, then the general population, according to the state’s COVID vaccination program book. In New York, the general population likely won’t be eligible for vaccination until late January, according to Cuomo.

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Not afraid

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A little less than half of U.S. adults surveyed by the Pew Research Center in September said they would definitely not, or probably would not, get vaccinated against the coronavirus. A Gallup poll conducted in late October and early November showed that about 58% of U.S. adults said they would get a coronavirus vaccine.

This presents a hurdle for public health agencies fighting against the spread of the coronavirus.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, this country’s top infectious disease expert, told NPR last week that about 50% of Americans would need to get vaccinated before the number of COVID-19 infections would be impacted.

“But I would say 75 to 85% would have to get vaccinated if you want to have blanket herd immunity,” he added.

Some Americans are wary of receiving vaccines for a number of reasons, one of them being concern that the vaccine might not be safe.

Both Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines have gone through clinical trials. Thousands of people participated in those trials and none of them reported having any serious medical side effects, though some reported experiencing mild side effects, like headaches and muscle pain. For that reason, HHHN is staggering vaccinations to ensure they maintain a stable staffing level.

Monroe got the Pfizer vaccine last week. She was eligible because she works in the nursery and Emergency Room at Adirondack Medical Center.

Asked if she was afraid to get vaccinated, Monroe quickly responded.

“Not at all,” she said. “I didn’t even blink when thinking about getting it.”

Though there are risks associated with the vaccine, Monroe said the benefits outweigh them.

“This is going to be a vaccine that will have side effects that we don’t know about and side effects that we do know about, but I think that the benefits far outstate the chance of any risks,” she said.

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“It (will) make it easier to go to work in the morning.”

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Getting vaccinated doesn’t necessarily mean a person is safe from potential exposure to the coronavirus, only that they won’t get sick with COVID-19. That means that even after getting vaccinated, social distancing and mask-wearing will still be necessary to help prevent the spread of the virus.

“At first it’s not going to mean very much because you really don’t have good antibody response and it’s not really protective until you’ve had a second dose and it’s been about two weeks,” Monroe said. “I think you’re not really going to see any difference in how any of us act around patients because we will continue to be as careful as we need to be.

“It certainly makes everybody feel a lot better knowing we’re now doing everything possible we can do to keep ourselves and our patients safe,” she added.

Monroe said this was an “early Christmas present.”

“It’s really the best news we’ve had in nine months,” she said.

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“They’re being very brave”

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Though they’ve continued to treat patients and come into the hospital, both Buck and Monroe, whose office space overlooks the drive-thru testing clinic at AMC, don’t consider themselves as being on the frontlines of this fight against COVID-19.

Monroe pointed to the staff at AMC’s COVID Clinic and Emergency Department as those who have shown real bravery throughout this pandemic.

“I don’t work in a big hospital in New York City where people are dying around me,” Monroe said.

“It’s been eye-opening to watch the nursing staff and the ER doctors and the (physician’s assistants) in the ER. None of them have blinked about doing what they have to do to take care of those patients,” she added. “Especially the nurses in the COVID clinic. They’re swabbing hundreds of people every day, people that they know are positive.

“I’m sure they think about it, but they’re being very brave.”