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TAKE THIS VIRUS SERIOUSLY Courier urges our community to stay home, stay safe, and ‘Mask up!’
Pittsburgh Courier NEW
www.newpittsburghcourier.com Vol. 111 No. 51
Two Sections
DECEMBER 16-22, 2020
thenewpittsburghcourier Published Weekly $1.00
LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL
SYLVIA OWUSU-ANSAH, M.D., 42, AND JA’RAY GAMBLE, 29, were among the first UPMC employees to receive the first part of the new COVID-19 vaccine, which arrived Monday morning, Dec. 14, at UPMC Children’s Hospital. (Photos courtesy UPMC)
Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine arrives in Pittsburgh by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
At 9:15 a.m. Monday, Dec. 14, a Black man, dressed in UPS brown, delivered perhaps the most important box in Pittsburgh medical history. The United Parcel Service (UPS) employee, Dallas White, wheeled into the garage of UPMC Chil-
dren’s Hospital in Lawrenceville a large white box containing 975 vials of the FDA-approved Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The UPS delivery driver was met by UPMC officials, who were overwhelmed with excitement at the sight of the long-awaited vaccine. A few hours later, UPMC officials publicly adminis-
Frontline healthcare workers will be first to receive vaccine tered the first doses of the vaccine to several frontline UPMC workers who provide various aspects of care, including Sylvia Owusu-Ansah, M.D., 42, an emergency department
physician at UPMC Children’s, and Ja’Ray Gamble, 29, a transporter at UPMC Mercy. “This is truly a momentous occassion,” said Tami Minnier, chief quality
officer at UPMC, before administering the first COVID-19 vaccine dosage in Pittsburgh history to frontline worker Charmaine Pkyosh, a 67-yearold advanced nurse practitioner at UPMC Presbyterian. “Over the last nearly 10 months, they (the frontline workers) have worked tirelessly at the front line, taking
care of our communities, and have made sacrifices that we will all stand in honor of as we go forward.” Minnier, a registered nurse for more than 40 years, made the correlation of how roughly 65 years ago, just a few miles from UPMC Children’s, Dr. Jonas Salk created the SEE VACCINE A4
Will Rosemary Crawford become the next Common Pleas judge? B-PEP urges Gov. Wolf to nominate more Black judges Pittsburgh Courier NEW
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by Rob Taylor Jr. Courier Staff Writer
What are the chances that an African American judge would have referred to a Black female juror in their court as “Aunt Jemima,” as Mark Tranquilli was accused of doing? Tranquilli, who is White, was an Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas judge who resigned in November, months after he was accused of referring to
a local Black female juror as “Aunt Jemima” and for using other phrases that suggested racial and discriminatory overtones usually not suited for a person entrusted with a black robe. Tim Stevens, the President and CEO of the Black Political Empowerment Project, believes there’s a simple way for these types of alleged discriminatory SEE CRAWFORD A2
ROSEMARY CRAWFORD, ESQ.