Up to 40 percent of frontline employees in Los Angeles County have refused to take the coronavirus vaccine at a time when intensive care units across the province are reaching full capacity.
According to public health officials, between 20 and 40 percent of LA County’s frontline workers who preferred the COVID-19 vaccine refused to take it. The Los Angeles Times report.
In some hospitals, up to 50 percent of healthcare professionals rejected the coronavirus jab. The issue is so common that hospitals and public officials have met to discuss the best way to distribute the unused doses.
Although coronavirus vaccines have been widely proven to be safe and effective by tens of thousands of participants, skepticism is still high among those in the healthcare community.
“I choose the risk – the risk of having COVID, or the risk that the vaccine is unknown,” said April Lu, a 31-year-old nurse at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center. LA Times.
“I think I choose the risk of COVID. I can control it and prevent it a bit by wearing masks, even though it’s not 100 percent.”
Lu said she feels skeptical about the vaccine because she is six months pregnant and extensive clinical trials still need to be done on pregnant women taking the vaccine.
A December survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that up to 29 percent of health workers are reluctant to get vaccinated.
Those who expressed skepticism expressed concern about possible side effects, a lack of confidence in the government and fears the vaccine was too new.
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But other health care leaders have warned that if too many Americans refuse the vaccine, the pandemic could continue indefinitely.
Talk to Newsweek Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert on infectious diseases, said on Wednesday that about 70 to 85 percent of Americans should be vaccinated against COVID-19 to see a “dramatic decrease” in cases.
Fauci added that it was ‘very important to get the vast majority of the people vaccinated,’ and warned that the country could otherwise be left in a ‘chronic state of a lower level of infection’.
The refusal of LA County health workers to be vaccinated comes because hospitals in the country are overwhelmed with virus patients.
This past weekend, about 96 percent of hospitals nationwide had to transfer emergency patients to other facilities due to overcrowding Los Angeles Daily News report. The situation is so dire that in some cases hospitals have had to turn away ambulances to drop off new patients.
By Monday, two-thirds of the ICU beds in the province were filled with coronavirus patients, while some hospitals had reached full ICU capacity. The situation is expected to worsen after the celebration of Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
To ease tensions, Governor Gavin Newsom said Monday that he will set up support teams in LA County, consisting of additional health workers from across California.
So far, there have been at least 756,412 cases and 10,056 deaths in Los Angeles since the pandemic began, according to the New York Times.
Newsweek reached Newsom for further comment, but did not hear in time for publication.