The title of this article in the Boston Globe today undoubtedly set off a few alarm bells in Massachusetts. “The state police were offered COVID-19 vaccines at work. Hundreds refused to get them. “Given the priority that Governor Charlie Baker has given to vaccination, the first interventions and the efforts made to achieve this would undoubtedly be a disappointment if the state police demonstrated in large numbers the hesitation of the vaccine. It is clear what the title of the article says, but is it true?
Although the Baker administration rejected requests for teacher-specific clinics, arguing that it could redirect doses from other needy populations amid a small amount, the state has created three State Police vaccination sites for soldiers and other first responders in the previous phase. launch.
As of Friday, 2,002 of the 2,847 eligible State Police employees, including civilians, had received at least one dose at one of the department’s clinics in Framingham, Plymouth or Chicopee, according to data released in response to a request from the Boston Globe …
“Police officers in general, especially today, with all the control over them, I think are very skeptical of almost anything,” said Dennis Galvin, a retired state police officer and president of the Massachusetts Professional Law Enforcement Association. a group of current defenders and retirees of law enforcement and criminal justice. Galvin said he is scheduled to receive the first dose on Tuesday.
Based on the reported figures, it seems at first glance that more than 800 of the approximately 2,800 soldiers accepted the vaccination. This is well over 25% and probably would not send a very good message to other residents of the state. But here it is clearly more than it seems.
First of all, like Globe readily acknowledges, these records come only from the three specific pods that the state has set up exclusively for police vaccination. Some officers may have gone elsewhere for vaccinations, especially if they live at a significant distance from any of the three police pods. Others may have basic conditions that have led doctors to advise them to wait.
Officials from the police union representing state soldiers told reporters that they do not monitor or track vaccinations among their members. Police officers were advised to consult with their doctors and decide for themselves. In other words, they can neither confirm nor deny the total number of unvaccinated police officers. So it is quite possible that the vaccination rate among soldiers will be substantially higher.
Unfortunately, this may not be the case in other areas of law enforcement in the Bay State. Globe managed to identify the number in two areas where it is confirmed that the vaccine hesitation is well above average. At the sheriff’s office in Bristol County, 66% of people working there turned down the chance to be blocked. It’s almost as bad at the Corrections Department, where more than half said they don’t thank you for a shot. This is particularly worrying when you consider the rates of infection in prisons, where outbreaks have grown much faster than in the general population when they occur.
For some reason, I had the impression that the whole issue of hesitation about the vaccine had diminished significantly now, when the photos were taken in large numbers. The catastrophic results of vaccination are almost unheard of and even serious incidents, although non-fatal side effects are observed in only a small percentage of those who have been vaccinated. Hopefully we’ll work it out eventually, but at least for now there are clearly a few Massachusetts first responders who still have their doubts.