JEWISH WORLD

By KARL GROSSMAN T he process of getting a vacci- nation at Stony Brook Univ- ersity to prevent COVID-19 was amazingly well-organized. I had been concerned about getting to the site where shots were being given on the sprawling Stony Brook campus, but signage was abundant. And traffic was directed by National Guard sol- diers and Stony Brook University Police. There was an enormous num- ber of people at various stations inside the campus building being used for vaccinations — many of them drawn from the various Health Sciences programs at Stony Brook. They were consis- tently helpful. Quite an activation of resources! Very impressive! G etting an appointment wasn’t easy, but I kept trying by call- ing the state’s “vaccination hotline” (at 833-697-4829). And, finally, I landed a slot. I was given the shot — of the Pfizer vaccine — by a team of two young women who attend the Stony Brook School of Nursing. I told them, as the needle was prepared, about being a journalist and having written articles about the founding of their school in the early 1970s. I suggested they Google the name of Dr. Edmund Pellegrino to learn about why, largely because of his leadership, the Health Sciences programs at Stony Brook — includ- ing the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Dental Medicine — are unusual. Dr. Pellegrino pioneered interdiscipli- nary health science education and clinical care at Stony Brook as its vice president for health sciences. When the needle went in, I didn’t feel it. It was the thinnest needle ever poked into me. I was told there might be moderate pain in my upper arm afterwards. As I write this, the next day, any pain has dis- appeared. After the shot I was directed to a big room in which the newly vacci- nated were to sit for 15 minutes, to wait to make sure they were OK. Chairs were socially-distanced. On a big screen, a video program was being played on the history of health sciences at Stony Brook. It was déjà vu time. It brought me back to covering Stony Brook way back — and getting to know its stu- dents, faculty and admin- istrators — and especial- ly the visionary Dr. Pellegrino. The arrival of Stony Brook Uni-versity was a shock for some commu- nities and people in Suffolk. There was “town-grown” conflict. The top administrators of the university met with the top editors of the daily Long Island Press and asked, an editor later told me, if they could assign a reporter who might be “sensitive” regarding the conflict and also what was hap- pening at the university. At that time, 1969, I had begun a column, pub- lished every Sunday in The Press , that reported on Suffolk politics and government and did investigative reporting. And this responsibility was given to me. W atching that video in the waiting room, those years came rushing back. In it were peo- ple I had interviewed and programs I had written about — and a photo of Dr. Pellegrino. I related in pieces back then to 12 JEWISH WORLD • MARCH 19-25, 2021 A History Of Service My time at Stony Brook U: vaccinations and Dr. Pellegrino continued on page 30 Pellegrino got to know the Medical School dean, who liked to lunch at a restaurant his father worked at. FIRST PERSON The late Dr. Pellegrino, who pioneered interdisciplinary health science education, studies a planning model of the Health Sciences towers during his tenure at Stony Brook University. As part of Stony Brook University’s campaign to keep its students and faculty safe, it started vaccinating. First were the students on the front line: the Nursing students.