2:26 p.m. ET, July 7, 2022
First American to get Covid-19 vaccine to be awarded with Medal of Freedom
From CNN's Adrienne Vogt
Sandra Lindsay receives the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine from Dr. Michelle Chester in December 2020.
(Mark Lennihan/Pool/AP)
President Biden will award
Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse
who the White House says was the first American to receive a Covid-19 vaccine outside of clinical trials, with the Medal of Freedom Thursday.
Lindsay, an intensive care unit nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, received the vaccine on Dec. 14, 2020.
In an interview with CNN on Thursday before the ceremony, Lindsay said she is "so excited" to be given the honor.
She missed the phone call from the White House telling her about the award, she said.
"At first I thought it was a prank call. Why would the President of the United States be calling me, Sandra Lindsay? But then I checked my email and saw that, you know, the White House had followed up with an email, and so I knew it was real," she said.
She said she is "still very hopeful" about the United States' response to the pandemic and larger mental health issues.
"We still have some ways to go with the pandemic, but we've made significant strides and I am just grateful that I have this platform, that I can also shed light on other needs of healthcare workers. When the nation needed healing, the healthcare workers stepped up. ... Now we need healing in terms of mental health resources and also addressing other factors that relate to mental health, such as student loan debt, health equity and women's rights," she said.
Lindsay said back in 2020 that she had "no fear" and she wanted to inspire other people to trust science and get vaccinated.
“I want to be a part of the solution to put an end to this pandemic once and for all,” she told CNN. “I think also as a leader in the organization that I lead by example. I don’t ask people to do anything that I would not do myself.”
One year after getting her vaccine, as the Omicron variant was leading to skyrocketing levels of Covid-19 infections, Lindsay said she had "tremendous gratitude that I was able to get vaccinated and pride in the work that I've done so far to be an activist for vaccinations."
Lindsay also spoke out in 2021 about encountering people who she said were too “far down” the tunnel of conspiracy theories.
“I can speak on behalf of health care workers at my organization when I say that we are tired, and we're concerned, especially because we know that the public now has options,” she said.
CNN's Eric Levenson contributed reporting to this post.