-
All four nurses in the Kansas Department of Health refused to give patients COVID-19 vaccines.
-
The administrator of the health department denied incorrect information as part of their reasoning.
-
The province will contract with other nurses to distribute the vaccine.
-
Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
All four nurses working in the Coffey County health department in Kansas said they would not give people the COVID-19 vaccine, a sign of how misinformation is spreading about the shots, even among health workers.
At a Jan. 4 provincial meeting, Health Department administrator Lindsay Payer said they were not prepared to give the COVID-19 vaccine, The Daily Beast reported.
“My staff is not comfortable with that. It’s a new technology we’ve never seen before,” Payer told the Board of Commissioners during the meeting, which is available on YouTube.
MRNA vaccines, such as those now distributed for the coronavirus, have been studied since the 1990s.
Read more: what to say to a friend who is skeptical about coronavirus vaccination
Payer said she and other nurses in the department were uncomfortable with the vaccines and were unsure about their safety, citing inaccurate information about the shots. She told the council that the health department would appoint outside nurses who were willing to distribute the vaccine.
Coronavirus vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna have been studied in tens of thousands of people. Pfizer’s late trial, for example, included more than 43,000 people. The vaccines were not rushed – countries and organizations have invested heavily in all phases of the development process, which has saved time. Scientists were also able to build on previous work on vaccines for MERS and SARS, which are also coronaviruses.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration examined the data on both vaccines before the agency issued emergency injection permits for the injections. The FDA found that the shots were very effective and safe for most people.
As of January 13, Payer and other nurses in Coffey County have not changed their minds. She told 13 News in Topeka that it was a personal decision for each nurse, not a message for or against getting the vaccine.
Read more: As an autism researcher, I have been handling misinformation against vaccines for years. Here’s how we can combat it during the deployment of the COVID vaccine
Provincial medical officer Dr Jeff Sloyer refuted Payer’s misinformation at the next meeting.
“Both of these vaccines have been very well studied,” he told Topeka’s 13 News.
The Kansas Department of Health and the Environment shared a statement with 13 News about the safety and efficacy of vaccines.
“The data show that the known and potential benefits of this vaccine outweigh the known and potential disadvantages of COVID-19 infection,” the department said.
Read the original article on Business Insider