The desperately anticipated US coronavirus vaccination campaign is met with resistance from an unlikely quarter: surprising numbers of health workers who have seen firsthand the death and misery of COVID-19 refuse shots.
It happens in nursing homes and, to a lesser extent, in hospitals, where workers say what experts say are unfounded fears of side effects from vaccines developed in record time. More than three weeks after the start of the campaign, in some places as much as 80% of the staff feel reluctant.
“I don’t think anyone wants to be a guinea pig,” said Dr. Stephen Noble, a 42-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon in Portland, Oregon, who is delaying his vaccination. “At the end of the day, as a scientist, I just want to see what the data shows. And give me the full details. “
Alarmed by the phenomenon, some administrators have had everything from a free breakfast at Waffle House to a raffle for a car to get employees to roll up their sleeves. Some states have threatened to let other people get ahead of health workers in line for shots.
‘It’s way too low. It’s shockingly low, ”said Neil Pruitt, CEO of PruittHealth, which runs about 100 long-term care homes in the South, where fewer than 3 in 10 workers have so far offered the vaccine, have accepted it.
Many medical facilities, from Florida to Washington state, have pleaded for near-universal acceptance of the admissions, and workers have proudly plastered photos of themselves on social media receiving the vaccine. Elsewhere, however, the ride has stumbled.
While the federal government has not released data on how many people who have offered the vaccines have taken them, glimpses of backlash have sprung up all over the country.
In Illinois, a wide rift has developed in state-run veteran homes between residents and staff. The discrepancy was greatest at the veteran home in Manteno, where 90% of the residents had been vaccinated, but only 18% of the staff.
In rural Ashland, Alabama, about 90 of the roughly 200 Clay County Hospital workers have yet to agree to vaccination, even as the site is so overrun with COVID-19 patients that oxygen is running low and beds have been added to intensive care. divided by plastic sheeting.
The backlash comes amid the most deadly phase of the outbreak to date, with a death toll of over 350,000, and it could hamper government efforts to vaccinate anywhere from 70% to 85% of the U.S. population to to achieve “herd immunity”.
Administrators and public health officials have expressed the hope that more health workers will choose to be vaccinated as they see their colleagues take the photos without any problems.
Doctor Noble of Oregon said he will wait until April or May to take the recordings. He said it is vital for public health authorities not to overdo what they know about the vaccines. That’s especially important, he said, for black people like him who distrust the government’s medical guidance because of past failures and abuses, such as the infamous Tuskegee experiment.
Medical journals have published extensive data on the vaccines, and the Food and Drug Administration has made its analysis public. But misinformation about the shots has spread wildly online, including falsehoods that they cause fertility problems.
Stormy Tatom, 30, a nurse at the ICU in Beaumont, Texas, said she has decided not to get vaccinated for now “because of the unknown long-term side effects.”
“I would say at least half of my colleagues feel the same way,” said Tatom.
There are no signs of widespread serious side effects from the vaccines, and scientists say the drugs have been rigorously tested on tens of thousands and audited by independent experts.
States have started to increase the pressure. The South Carolina governor gave health workers until January 15 to get a shot or “go to the back of the line.” Georgia’s top health official has allowed some vaccines to be diverted to other frontline workers, including firefighters and police, out of frustration at the slow uptake.
“There is a vaccine available, but it is literally in the freezer,” said Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey. That is unacceptable. We have lives to save. “
Nursing homes were among the institutions that got priority in the admissions because the virus cut a terrible job through it. Residents and long-term care staff are responsible for about 38% of COVID-19 fatalities in the country.
According to Martin Wright, who leads the West Virginia Health Care Association, in West Virginia, only about 55% of nursing home workers agreed to the shots when they were first presented.
“It’s a race against social media,” Wright said of fighting falsehoods about the vaccines.
Ohio government Mike DeWine said only 40% of the state’s nursing home workers have received an injection. North Carolina’s top public health official estimated that more than half refused the vaccine there.
SavaSeniorCare has offered money to the 169 long-term care homes in its network of 20 states to pay for gift cards, social distance parties, or other incentives. But so far, data from about a third of homes shows that 55% of workers have refused the vaccine.
CVS and Walgreens, who are contracted by a majority of nursing homes in the US to administer COVID-19 vaccinations, have not released details on the acceptance rate. CVS said residents have agreed to immunization at an “encouragingly high” rate, but “initial staff uptake is low,” in part because of attempts to falter when employees get their injections.
Some facilities have vaccinated workers in stages so that staff are not sidelined all at once if they experience minor side effects, including fever and pain.
The hesitation is not surprising, given the mixed message from political leaders and misinformation online, said Dr. Wilbur Chen, a professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in vaccine science.
He noted that health workers represent a wide variety of jobs and backgrounds and said they are not necessarily more informed than the general public.
“They don’t know what to believe, either,” Chen said. But he said he expects the hesitation to ease as more people get vaccinated and public health officials deliver their message.
Some places have already seen a turnaround, such as the Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“The main thing that helped us gain confidence in our staff was watching other staff get vaccinated, being okay, walking out of the room, you know, not growing a third ear, and so that’s really like an avalanche,” said Dr. Catherine O’Neal, Chief Medical Officer. “The first few hundred we made, another 300 who wanted the vaccine.”
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Contributors to this report were Associated Press authors Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Heather Hollingsworth in Mission, Kansas; Janet McConnaughey in New Orleans; Candice Choi in New York; Kelli Kennedy in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; Jay Reeves in Birmingham, Alabama; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland; Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina; John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana; and Bryan Anderson in Raleigh, North Carolina.