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Critical care nurse first to receive COVID vaccine in New York

14 December 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Sandra Lindsay, a critical care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, received the first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in New York on Monday.

Why it matters: It's a huge milestone in the fight against the coronavirus as the country begins the largest vaccination campaign in U.S. history. New York was the original epicenter of the virus in the U.S.

What she's saying: "It didn't feel any different from taking any other vaccine," she said. She urged Americans to continue wearing masks and to social distance as the vaccine is distributed, adding: "there's light at the end of the tunnel ... I encourage everyone to take the vaccine."

Go deeper: Determining which essential workers to vaccinate first.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.