According to Friday, March 12, only 54.4% of the more than 12,000 long-term caregivers in the state received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to North Dakota immunization program manager Molly Howell.
Meanwhile, more than 90% of nursing home residents have been given at least one chance – probably the catalyst for the sharp drop in COVID-19 infections in the state’s facilities.
Howell has several reasons for the lack of uptake of vaccines among workers.
Howell says there is a lot of hold on the safety of the vaccines or how quickly they have been developed. According to the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, these fears are unfounded, noting that the approved vaccines meet ‘strict scientific standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing quality’.
Due to their continued exposure to the vulnerable facilities, many employees had previously contracted and beaten COVID-19, and some left out not needing the vaccine. Howell said those who survive the virus get some immunity to it, but scientists are not sure how long the immunity lasts and some cases of reinfection have occurred.
Howell said she has heard from long-term care officials that workers are frustrated because they have to continue to wear protective gear and perform COVID-19 tests despite the low infection rate in the facilities. Although several regulations have been weakened in recent weeks, some employees believe that nothing would change in their workplace, even if they were given the vaccine.
The relative youth of workers in nursing homes means they are likely to reflect more in the general population of North Dakota than any other group that received preference during the state vaccination, Howell said.
The reluctance of many workers to take their shots could predict the problems of adopting younger North Dakotans with vaccines as they become more widely available, she said. Older residents, such as those living in nursing homes, are easier to convince because they are more susceptible to COVID-19 due to serious illnesses and many of them remember the eradication of other communicable diseases such as polio.
Howell believes that training more workers about vaccines and spreading misinformation will be the key to changing unbelieving thinking. She said the Department of Health and North Dakota State University have worked together to distribute educational materials and meet with those in the long-term care industry.
Some individual facilities have taken a different approach by offering incentives to workers who get the chance. One institution promised three extra days off to vaccinated employees, while another handed out $ 100 gift certificates, said Shelly Peterson, president of the North Dakota Long Care Association.
But perhaps time is the best driver of increased vaccination among workers. In the past three weeks, about 6.5% of nursing home workers in the state have sought a vaccine.
Some of the initial skeptics are starting to get around because they realize that the vaccine had no adverse effect on their co-workers, Howell and Peterson agreed.
“It’s just going to take time, encouragement and reassurance that we are not seeing negative consequences from those who received the vaccine, and in fact we are seeing some positive results,” Peterson said.
North Dakota is a national leader in vaccine distribution, with nearly a quarter of residents receiving at least one dose.