Officials said many troops had received the vaccine at premises outside the department.
More than 800 employees of the Massachusetts State Police did not want to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, even though they were in the first phase of dosing, police said.
A total of 845 members of the MSP, including sworn staff and civil servants, refused to receive the vaccine at state police clinics. This is about 30% of the sworn and civilian officers of the force.
Meanwhile, 2,002 departments, both sworn and civilian officers, received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine at departmental clinics, MSP officials told ABC News.
According to the Boston Globe, hesitation against vaccines is a problem in the state. A report last week from the Department of Corrections shows that more than half of its staff rejected the state’s offer to get the vaccine at work. State prison officials told the newspaper last month that the number of people refusing the vaccine included workers who had received the shot on the premises.
Nancy Sterling, a spokeswoman for the Massachusetts State Police Association, which represents the department’s 2,200 troops and sergeants, said she saw no fear or hesitation among members in receiving the vaccine.
“We have not seen it yet, but again, there is no official mechanism for anyone to share it with us,” Sterling told ABC News. “If members ask, we suggest they talk to their health care professional.”
Officials also stressed that the gap in vaccinations is not necessarily due to the lack of confidence in the vaccines.
“The fact that members did not receive a vaccine at the MSP clinics does not mean that they were refused a vaccine, it means that they did not receive a vaccine during the MSP clinics,” said the director of media communications. , Dave Procopio, told ABC News.
Sterling said many officers received the vaccine elsewhere, rather than from police. The union did not order officers to receive the vaccine, claiming it would be a violation of privacy to ask members if they had received a vaccine dose.
In Massachusetts, first responders were given preference to receive a vaccine from Jan. 11, and the state created three vaccination sites for state troops and other first responders.
As of Monday, nearly 1 million people had been fully vaccinated in Massachusetts, according to the latest COVID-19 report on the Department of Public Health’s vaccine data.