Doctors reflect on one year since first COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in Ohio

It was one year ago today that the first shipments of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Ohio, ready to be put into shots for healthcare workers who by that point had been fighting on the front lines of the pandemic for going on nine hard months. 

The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center was one of the first healthcare systems to receive a truckload of vaccines. It's also the day that Governor Mike DeWine said, "the end now is in sight."

The next day, vaccine shots arrived here in Northeast Ohio, to hospitals like MetroHealth. In the next year, 15.1 million shots would be given to fully innoculate more than 54 percent of all Ohioans. 

Today on the "Sound of Ideas," we talk to some of the people involved in the rollout of the vaccine at different Ohio healthcare institutions, to discuss how this life-changing vaccine shaped our past year. 

We also want to talk about what was unexpected about the past year, the many people who refused to get life-saving treatment, as well as the Delta, and now the Omicron variants, that are making the pandemic continue on and on.

Many are starting to question the governor's proclamation, wondering if the end is even close, to being in sight.  We'll also ask about what the future of the vaccine holds. 

Later in the hour, we'll share another episode of WKSU's music podcast "Shuffle."

Plus, we'll preview an in-depth discussion on the impact partisan politics is having on Ohio education.

And, we'll hear the story of an asylum seeker from Kuwait, who recently found work in her field of choice, law, all because of a listener who reached out. 

-Iahn Gonsenhauser, MD, Chief Quality and Patient Safety Officer, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
-Brook Watts, MD, Senior Vice President for Quality & Chief Medical Officer, Community & Public Health, The MetroHealth System
-Jenny Hamel, Education Reporter, Ideastream Public Media
-Brittany Nader, Producer, WKSU
-Ryan Charles Ramer, Classical Composer 
-Christopher Richards, Curator, Survival Kit Gallery
-Fatima Matar, Legal Adviser in bankruptcy and social security