Despite having been given priority as the first recipients of the coronavirus vaccine, a large number of health care providers and frontline workers pass the vaccine on. Early reports from around the country show that healthcare and frontline workers are refusing to receive 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 attendance figures, saying, “We’re not going to make them, but we wish they had higher compliance.” He added that he was “troubled” by how many nursing home workers rejected the vaccine.
DeWine warned frontline workers that they would soon no longer be in front of the line: “Our message today is: the train may not return for a while. We will eventually make it available to everyone, but this is the opportunity for you, and you should really think about getting it. ”
Dr. Joseph Varon, chief of staff at the United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, is frustrated that more than half of the nurses in his ward will refuse to receive the vaccine.
“I had a fight yesterday, but I had a friendly fight with over 50% of my nurses in my ward who told me they weren’t going to get the vaccine,” he said.
NPR’s “Morning Edition.”
“Some of those nurses have hospitalized family members who are 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 unwarranted side effects.”
In California, an estimated 50% of front-line workers in Riverside County rejected the COVID-19 vaccine, Health Director Kim Saruwatari told the Los Angeles Times.
At St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Tehama County, less than half of the 700 hospital employees who were eligible for the vaccine were ready to take the injection when it was first offered. At the Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills was one in five primary care nurses and doctors refused the shot, “the LA Times reported.” About 20% to 40% of LA County front-line workers who were offered the vaccine did the same, according to county public health officials. ”
Dr. Nikhila Juvvadi, the chief clinical officer at Loretto Hospital in Chicago, questioned hospital staff just before the coronavirus vaccine came out, and 40% of staff said they would not be vaccinated, according to NPR.
In an early December poll of members of the New York fire department, about 55% of uniformed firefighters said they would choose not to take the photo, WNBC-TV said.
A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, published Dec. 15, found that 29% of those working in a health care facility would either not or certainly not get the opportunity. The poll also found that 33% of essential workers would pass. In all, 27% of Americans are “hesitant about vaccines”.
There is a big gap between Americans who are willing to get vaccinated, depending on their political beliefs. According to the survey, 86% of Democrats say they are sure or likely to get the coronavirus vaccine, compared to 56% of Republicans who said the same.
According to the KFF, the main concerns about reluctance to get the coronavirus vaccine are:
- Possible side effects (59%)
- Lack of confidence in the government to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines (55%)
- Concern that the vaccine is too new (53%)
- Concern about the role of politics in the development process (51%)
Sheena Bumpas, a licensed nursing assistant in an Oklahoma home, told the New York Times she was reluctant to get the COVID-19 vaccine because “I don’t want to be a guinea pig.”
April Lu, a 31-year-old nurse at Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in California, declined to take the vaccine because she fears it may not be safe for pregnant women, and she is six months pregnant.
“I choose the risk – the risk of COVID, or the risk of the unknown from the vaccine,” Lu told the Los Angeles Times. “I think I choose the risk of COVID. I can control that and prevent that a bit by wearing masks, although not 100% sure.”
Last week, Dr. Anthony Fauci noted that coronavirus vaccines may be required to attend school or travel internationally.