A woman's doctor wrote her a prescription to hug her granddaughter after she received the COVID-19 vaccine

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A woman's doctor wrote her a prescription to hug her granddaughter after she received the COVID-19 vaccine
After getting vaccinated, Evelyn Shaw's doctor wrote her a prescription for a hug from her granddaughter.Courtesy of Jessica Shaw and Laura Shaw Frank
  • Evelyn Shaw hadn't hugged her grandchildren in a year due to the pandemic.
  • Her doctor wrote her a prescription reading "You are allowed to hug your granddaughter."
  • Shaw's daughter tweeted a photo of the prescription and a video of the hug, which went viral.
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It was her first hug in a year.

New York resident and grandmother Evelyn Shaw hadn't been able to visit her family since the coronavirus pandemic began last March.

Her daughter, Dr. Laura Shaw Frank, told Insider that she and her children would stand outside her door, 6 feet apart with masks on, but that they couldn't have her over for meals or spend quality time together the way they used to.

"We've been really carefully following the rules and the laws and what the CDC says and what Fauci says and what Cuomo says and what everybody's telling us to do, we do it. So it's been a long year," she said. "Since last March, no one has hugged her, and she will not permit anyone to hug her."

Even two weeks after Shaw received the second vaccine, which the CDC considers fully vaccinated, she was still too nervous to stop social distancing with family members. So their family doctor came up with a way to help her feel more comfortable: a prescription for the best medicine there is.

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On an official prescription note, the doctor wrote "You are allowed to hug your granddaughter."

A woman's doctor wrote her a prescription to hug her granddaughter after she received the COVID-19 vaccine
Just what the doctor ordered.Courtesy of Laura Shaw Frank

Shaw Frank and her daughter Ateret delivered the note in an emotional reunion.

"We stood 6 feet away and we handed her the note, and she opened it up and she took out the prescription and read the note - and she burst out crying," Shaw Frank said. "And then they hugged, and it was amazing, and that's the video I took. We all cried. It was a really beautiful moment."

Ateret said the hug "felt like a miracle."

Evelyn's daughter Jessica Shaw shared the video of that long-awaited embrace on Twitter, where it went viral.

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The video gave many Twitter users hope for their own upcoming reunions made possible by the vaccine.

"I'm really, really happy that it's making people smile," Ateret said. "I know how hard it is to get a smile during this, and to get good news."

Shaw Frank says that her mother has barely put the prescription down since she received it.

"She said it's one of her most precious possessions, and she wants to save it for the rest of her life," she said.

Earlier this week, the CDC released new guidance for fully vaccinated people, which said vaccinated grandparents can hug their grandchildren without masks. Experts told Insider's Kelsie Sandoval and Andrea Michelson that hugging is OK if you've been vaccinated and, if you haven't been, you can hug "very quickly, and only wearing a mask."

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