JAMAICAN-AMERICAN nurse Dr Sandra Lindsay, who was the first person in the United States to take the COVID-19 vaccine, comes home today for a 10-day visit, the first time since attaining overnight fame as the image of her taking the historic jab was flashed across the globe.

Lindsay said yesterday she would be here to pay final respects to a close friend who passed recently. But while here she would do whatever she could to help with the vaccine effort, cognisant that there were many of her compatriots who were hesitant about taking the jab.

“I’ll also be visiting my grandmother’s grave and exploring the hidden gems of my homeland, playing, laughing, enjoying my nieces and nephews and splashing about on the beach as I usually did on my annual visit before COVID-19 interfered,” she said.

She added that she was looking forward to savouring some good food at the restaurants which had won awards at the recent Jamaica Observer Table Talk Food Awards, before catching up on some much-needed sleep.

The Clarendon-born critical care nurse was last in the news in the lofty position as grand marshal for the July 7th Hometown Heroes’ Parade in Manhattan, New York, and just before that receiving her PhD in health sciences at the century-old AT Still University in Arizona.

The graduation event was flavoured even more by the rare sight of her older brother, Garfield Lindsay, a respiratory therapist in Maryland, walking across a makeshift graduation stage moments apart, also to receive his PhD in health sciences — the two flying the Jamaican flag with unfettered pride.

The brother-and-sister duo comes home at a time when the novel coronavirus, to which they owe their fame, is making a rebound in Jamaica, increasing hospitalisation and spurring fears of the appearance of the complex Delta variant which is far more infectious than the original.

Sandra and Garfield Lindsay were featured in a recent joint interview on Saint International head honcho Deiwght Peters’ hit television show, Rolling With Deiwght Peters, aired weekly on Sundays by Television Jamaica ( TVJ).

In the interview she said she had been “lending my voice, appearing on different panels, working on behalf of people, making a difference, addressing vaccine hesitancy, yes, encouraging and educating people about the importance of taking control of their health by getting vaccinated”.

“My motivation for wanting to do global health is to give back to Jamaica in some form or fashion, and I don’t know what that would look like yet, but helping to achieve health and well-being for all. I have a passion also for leadership,” she told Peters.