FIRST IN LINE

A hospital executive and nursing director discusses her path “from immigrant to COVID-19 vaccine evangelists.”

In December 2020, Lindsay became the first North American to receive the Covid-19 vaccine. This courageous act, along with the compassionate intelligence she demonstrated while skillfully shepherding a Long Island critical care center through the chaotic early pandemic, earned her the Presidential Medal of Freedom two years later. But the path that took her from nurse to respected vaccine advocate and hospital executive was filled with challenges that stemmed from her immigrant status, race, and gender. Born in Jamaica to a respected family, Lindsay immigrated to New York City as a young woman in 1986. As she struggled financially in her new country, she faced discrimination everywhere—from patrons at the grocery store where she worked to the nurses where she gave birth to her son in 1989. Painful as these experiences were, they also helped her develop empathy for marginalized people and became the wellspring on which Lindsay drew as she pursued her nursing education. Her personal experiences also encouraged an interest in the health challenges that disproportionately plague minorities—and especially female ones—in American society. “Battling back the stereotypes, hostilities, and discriminatory behavior can have serious physical effects on our bodies,” she writes. Indeed, working on the frontlines of the health care system during the pandemic, Lindsay witnessed for herself how people of color died in far greater numbers than white patients. Despite so much public resistance to vaccination—especially within marginalized communities—she believes hope lies in a governmental grassroots effort to meet “people where they are, and [listen] to their concerns.” Lindsay’s book will be of particular interest to anyone seeking to create greater equity in a flawed, often racist American health care system.

Candid, informative, and cautiously optimistic.