About half of the sheriff’s employees in Santa Clara County turned down the vaccine

About half of Sheriff’s County employees refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, which means dozens of employees work in unvaccinated prisons, according to the office.

Although 861 of the department’s more than 1,800 employees received both doses of the vaccine, nearly 800 refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, sheriff’s officials said Thursday at a meeting of the county’s public safety and justice committee. Another 200 employees do not yet qualify for it.

The high number of refusals left the county supervisors on Thursday, especially since the number of incarcerated people who were infected has increased in the last 500 since the beginning of the new year. Of the employees who refused the vaccine, about 400 work in the custody division.

“I’m a little speechless,” said Susan Ellenberg, the county supervisor. “We cannot significantly reduce or eliminate prison outbreaks if we have people who go to jail every day and have not been vaccinated.”

At least 536 county detainees obtained COVID-19 since March last year, according to the sheriff’s office dashboard, nearly half of these cases reported since early 2021. In early January, prisons reported 36 and 35 new cases. in the same week, scoring the top two totals in a single day. The dashboard has not been updated since January 18th.

Sheriff Laurie Smith said “there are a lot of reasons” that staff refused the vaccine. Some cited medical reasons, while others worked in cemetery shifts, which the office says make it difficult to schedule a meeting. A spokesman for the deputies’ union did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

“The fundamental question is that we can ask for it – and if not, what can we do?” Smith said.

The answer is not yet clear from a legal point of view, said County Executive Jeff Smith. For now, sheriff’s officials have told unvaccinated deputies that they must wear N-95 masks; inmates are given cloth masks.

Jeff Smith, however, pushed back the office’s claim that the vaccination rate could be attributed to logistical difficulties.

“The main problem is that people refuse the vaccine,” said Jeff Smith. “It doesn’t mean there is no access.”

The lower vaccination rate contrasts with other public safety departments in the area. As of Jan. 12, about 71 percent of San Jose Fire Department personnel, including emergency medical technicians and paramedics, had received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, according to a city report at the time.

As of January 14, the city’s frontline workers in custody, law enforcement officers and the 911 dispatcher were expected to begin the first doses of vaccine, and firefighters should receive the second dose. The city declined to provide updated statistics on Thursday to the news organization.

The county’s public defender, Molly O’Neal, said in a text on Friday that her office would “gladly” take the vaccines refused by the sheriff’s staff because “we desperately need them, we want them and we believe in science.” Last week, dozens of defenders appealed to the Santa Clara County Supervisory Board meeting to request vaccination or signed a letter requesting the same.

“Any custody who refuses to be vaccinated should be moved out of the custody facility as a danger to inmates,” O’Neal added.

Ellenberg called for “proactive education” or a town hall to be hosted to allow MPs to ask questions or work through their anxieties in the coming weeks.

“For the thousands of people who remain in our custody, it is our responsibility to protect and keep them safe,” Ellenberg said. “To the extent that staff do not contribute to their safety by refusing vaccination, we must take additional measures to protect those who have no choice.”