CLEVELAND — Dr. Cody Turner of the Cleveland Clinic shared a powerful testimony on the Howard Stern Show in early December. He shared exactly what is happening within our hospitals walls due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Friday, Dr. Turner rolled up his sleeve and became vaccinated for the very virus he has spent nine months treating.
“I feel very grateful to be one of the first to get the vaccine,” said Dr. Turner.
Dr. Turner tells 3News he was the first Cleveland Clinic doctor to intubate a patient due to the coronavirus. He says the vaccine is safe and effective.
“I think for a lot of us this provides hope and allows us to feel a little safer going to work every day and I also have a wife and two small children,” said Dr. Turner. “It's no worse than getting the flu shot, in fact it felt exactly the same. I think everyone should get it.”
Dr. Turner says the vaccine is a historical achievement for medicine.
‘We are at a place now where the more people get the vaccine, the less likely it is to spread, the more we can kind of curb the spread of the coronavirus and hopefully get to a place where in the next 6 months maybe...we can get back to a state of normalcy or as close to normal as we can hope to get.”
In a few weeks he'll get his second dose, but for now he says he feels a bit safer about saving the lives of the sickest patients, all the while returning home to his wife and children.
“We have a vaccine that's very effective, I think it will help me sleep better at night.”
Editor's Note: The below story aired on December 10, 2020
More COVID-19 coverage: