The Houston doctor says half of the nurses on his ward do not want a COVID-19 vaccine for political reasons

Health workers were the first nationwide this week to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, but a Houston Memorial Medical Center doctor said on Wednesday that half of his unit’s nurses don’t want it, calling it a “ political toy. ‘.

“Yesterday I had a – not a fight – but I had a friendly fight with more than 50 percent of my nurses in my ward who told me they wouldn’t be getting the vaccine,” Dr. Joseph Varon Wednesday to Steve Inskeep of NPR.

“Of course I pushed the concept that people should be vaccinated, and I asked, ‘why not?’ And you know, at the end of the day, as I said before, coronavirus has become a political toy, and most of the reasons most of my people don’t want to get the vaccine are politically motivated. ”

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Varon said he and his staff will have access to the vaccine next week. Despite some hesitation, he said that others are “very happy” and “actually a bit annoyed” that they did not pass the first round of vaccination.

The first shipments of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine contain approximately three million doses, with many more to follow in the coming weeks and months.

Nurse Kayla Mitchell is the first person in Maine to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.  She works in the COVID intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center.  (Charlie Berg / Maine Medical Center via AP)

Nurse Kayla Mitchell is the first person in Maine to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech. She works in the COVID intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center. (Charlie Berg / Maine Medical Center via AP)

About 27% of those in a Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Tuesday said they are likely or certainly not going to get the COVID-19 vaccine, even if it is free and considered safe.

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The number of Americans who said they are likely or sure to get it when it is available now stands at 71%, up from 63% in September.

The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines begins to distribute as the US reaches 16,716,777 confirmed cases and 303,773 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told Fox & Friends on Wednesday that 20 million Americans should get the vaccine by the end of this year, 50 million should get it by the end of January, and 100 million vaccines will be given by the end of February. .

Despite the vaccine’s promise, Houston Memorial Varon warned people not to become complacent.

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“I really believe that the next six weeks will probably be the darkest weeks Houston has had. We need people who just keep fighting,” he told NPR.

“My main concern is that, again, they think the vaccine will fix it and it will fix it soon. No, the vaccine will work, but it will take time. It will take months and more months, and probably even years. before everyone gets vaccinated. And then we have control over this pandemic. “

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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