The 66-year-old weather forecaster is live on 'Today' show when he receives his first dose of Pfizer vaccination at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital, claiming that he 'lucked out.'
- Jan 20, 2021
AceShowbiz - Al Roker found himself lucky to get COVID-19 vaccine. The "Today" weather forecaster has received his first dose of Pfizer at New York's Lenox Hill Hospital, and during his live vaccination, he claimed that he "lucked out."
In the Tuesday, January 19 episode of the NBC morning show, the 66-year-old first recalled how he set the appointment. "All weekend long, I went on the New York state Health dot Gov website and kept logging in and adding in my information, kept logging in, and logging in," he told co-hosts Hoda Kotb, Savannah Guthrie and Carson Daly.
"I kept hitting refresh, refresh, refresh on the browser and finally got in," he said of the city's health website. "They put up a certain number of appointments each day and then luck of the draw, so you have to keep going in… I lucked out."
Before getting the jab, Al asked Lenox Hill medical director Dr. Daniel Baker whether the vaccine was safe. In response, Daniel assured, "The clinical trials really showed it's efficacy and we've seen hundreds and thousands of doses since and everyone's doing really quite well."
The doctor went on to note that wearing masks even after getting vaccinated is still important. "That's a key component in keeping us all safe... Mask wearing is going to be with us for some time now," he pointed out.
Keeping his face mask on, Al finally took a seat to take the injection which was administered by nurse Jessica Callard. After getting the shot, he raved, "Wow, nurse Jessica, what a pro!" His co-hosts later applauded the nurse.
Al's vaccination came after he underwent surgery for prostate cancer in November 2020. Days after returning home following the successful operation, his doctor Dr. Vincent Loudone revealed that he "has no evidence of any cancer but we will continue to monitor him for several years."
