The first Veteran’s Affairs patient to receive the COVID-19 vaccine was a 96-year-old WWII veteran, according to the health system where she was treated.
Shortly after noon on Monday, Margaret Klessens became the first VA patient in the nation to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine, which received emergency use approval from the U.S.
Food and Drug Administration late last week.The vaccine, which requires two doses given weeks apart, is the first jab to receive such approval in the U.S.
Klessens was vaccinated at the VA Bedford Healthcare System, in Bedford, Mass., according to its Twitter account. The New Orleans and Bedford VA Medical Centers in Massachusetts on Monday became the first two department facilities to administer.