Despite being prioritized as the first recipients of the coronavirus vaccine, a large number of healthcare and front-line employees pass on the vaccine. Early reports from across the country show that healthcare workers and the front line are refusing to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
In Ohio, 60% of nursing home workers decided not to take the coronavirus vaccine. Last week, Gov. Mike DeWine (R) responded to the low turnout by saying, “We are not going to make it, but we wish they had a higher compliance.” He added that he was “concerned” about how many employees in the nursing home rejected the vaccine.
DeWine warned frontline employees that they will soon be no longer in line: ‘Our message today is: the train may not be back for a while. We’re going to make it available to everyone eventually, but this is the opportunity for you, and you really need to think about getting it. ‘
Dr Joseph Varon, chief of staff at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, is frustrated that more than half of the nurses in his unit are refusing to get the vaccine.
“Yesterday I had a fight, but I had a friendly argument with more than 50% of my nurses in my unit saying they would not get the vaccine,” he said.
NPR is ‘Morning Edition’.
“Some nurses admitted family members to the hospital who were seriously ill with COVID-19,” NPR reported. “But he said some nurses and hospital staff, many of whom are Latinx or Black, are skeptical that it will work and are concerned about unfounded side effects.”
In California, about 50% of front-line workers in Riverside County turned down the COVID-19 vaccine, Kim Saruwatari, director of public health, told the Los Angeles Times.
“At St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Tehama County, less than half of the 700 hospital workers eligible for the vaccine were willing to take the shot when it was first offered. At Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in “Mission Hills, one in five nurses and doctors, turned down the shot,” the LA Times reported. “According to public health officials, about 20% to 40% of LA County’s frontline workers offered the vaccine did the same. done.”
Dr Nikhila Juvvadi, the clinical head of Loretto Hospital in Chicago, interviewed the hospital staff just before the coronavirus vaccine came out, and 40% of employees said according to NPR that they would not be vaccinated.
In an early December survey among members of the New York Fire Department, about 55% of uniformed firefighters said they prefer not to get the chance, according to WNBC-TV.
A survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation published on December 15 found that 29% of those working in a health care department would probably not or definitely would not get the chance. The poll also found that 33% of essential workers would succeed. Overall, 27% of Americans are ‘hesitant about vaccines’.
There is a serious divide between Americans who are willing to be vaccinated, depending on their political commitment. According to the survey, 86% of Democrats say they will definitely or likely get the coronavirus vaccine, compared to 56% of Republicans who said the same.
According to the KFF, the biggest concern about the reluctance to get the coronavirus vaccine is:
- Possible side effects (59%)
- Lack of confidence in the government to ensure the safety and efficacy of the vaccine (55%)
- Concern that the vaccine is too new (53%)
- Concerns about the role of politics in the development process (51%)
Sheena Bumpas, a certified nursing assistant at a home in Oklahoma, told the New York Times that she was reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine because “I do not want to be a guinea pig.”
April Lu, a 31-year-old nurse at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in California, refused to take the vaccine because she was worried it might not be safe for pregnant women, and that she was six months pregnant.
“I choose the risk – the risk of having COVID, or the risk that the vaccine is unknown,” Lu told the Los Angeles Times. “I think I choose the risk of COVID. I can control it and prevent it a bit by wearing masks, although it is not 100% certain.”
Last week, dr. Anthony Fauci noted that coronavirus vaccines may become mandatory for school or international travel.