Several nursing homes across the country will begin receiving a 19-month Covid vaccine, but the impact of the massive effort will depend in part on the earnings of front-line workers, such as LaShundra Williams, who are skeptical about the blows.
Mrs. Williams, 40, is a certified nurse at St. St. James Veterans Home James, Mo., and says she is unlikely to agree to receive the shots, even though her son is currently ill with Covid- 19. Recently, she watched an internet broadcast by nursing home doctors about the safety and benefits of vaccines, hoping to be assured, but left unconvinced.
She is still worried that a vaccine could worsen anemia and believes the shots are allowed for widespread use too quickly.
“It’s too new,” she said. “I just don’t feel comfortable.”
The federal long-term immunization program, led by CVS Health Body.
and Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc.,
will begin its wide launch in a dozen states this week, with hundreds of facilities scheduled for visits over the next few days. But polls show that many employees are reluctant to get shot, and some have already refused them in the limited number of facilities where vaccinations have been administered.
At a nursing home in the village of John Knox in Pompano Beach, Florida, which became one of the first facilities in the United States to receive the vaccine last Wednesday, about a third of employees attended, according to Mark Raynor, director of health care. “It comes down to the fear of the unknown,” he said.
Last Monday, more than 50 hospitals and health departments across the country received the new authorized Covid-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech. Photo: UPMC
In Chester, W.Va., Foxcrest orchards, which include a nursing home, a care center and independent units, had about 65% of eligible staff agree to receive the vaccine on Thursday and Friday. Matt Murray, vice president of operations, said the company had launched an extensive information campaign. The community has faced a recent outbreak of Covid-19, including two deaths, he said, and executives hope more employees will agree to be shot at a later visit.
After the outbreak ended, Mr Murray said the community intends to start asking employees who have not been vaccinated to wear N95 masks at all times, unless they are eating or drinking. Those who received the two required photos will be allowed to use less restrictive surgical masks and only in patient areas. “The goal is really to encourage people to get vaccinated,” and also to protect residents and employees, he said.
Genesis Healthcare Inc.
and ProMedica Senior Care, the leading nursing home operators who vaccinated people at the initial facilities last week, both said they targeted only about half of their employees to receive fire during the first visit, so their administration could be staggered. . They managed to fill all the available spaces.
Despite efforts to strengthen testing and protective equipment in nursing homes, cases and deaths continued to rise inside the facility, with the virus spreading closely outside their walls. In the week ended December 6, there were 4,525 deaths in nursing homes, according to data released Thursday by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. This represented an increase of 56% compared to the 2,893 deaths in the week ending November 15.
Researchers say staff members exposed to the virus in their communities are likely to pass it on unknowingly to vulnerable residents of nursing homes, stressing the urgent need to vaccinate workers. “If you have enough immune staff, they’ll be less likely to put you in the building,” said Morgan Katz, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins University. Vaccination of half the staff is absolutely minimal, and the facilities should ensure that everyone receives photos, she said.
A survey of 1,677 American adults, released Dec. 15 by the Kaiser Family Foundation, found that 71% would certainly or probably receive a Covid-19 vaccine if it was found safe by scientists and offered free of charge. Among the groups with the highest levels of hesitation in vaccination were Republicans, people between the ages of 30 and 49, rural residents and black adults. Also, 29% of those who said they worked in a health care setting said they certainly did not want or probably would not be vaccinated.
In a mid-November survey of Indiana nursing home and assisted living staff by Indiana University researchers, only 45% of 8,243 respondents said they would consider taking a Covid vaccine. -19 as soon as it is available. Others said they would be willing to take it later. The survey, accepted for publication in the Journal of the American Geriatric Society, found that 70% of those who did not want to receive the vaccine were worried about side effects.
“There is only a great deal of mistrust,” said Lori Porter, executive director of the National Association of Nurses, an advocacy group that found in its own survey that nearly 72 percent of certified nurses did not want to receive the vaccine. “Many of my NACs, their answers were, ‘Nobody cares about old people and nobody cares about us and we don’t intend to be guinea pigs.’ “
Ms Carden, who worked at the Bartlesville unit earlier this year, says she saw the impact of the coronavirus directly, but eventually decided not to receive the vaccine.
Photo:
Shane Brown for the Wall Street Journal
Nursing assistants are generally paid low wages to work in facilities that are often understaffed.
Zenobia Carden is a 35-year-old certified nurse who worked in a nursing home earlier this year and is about to start a new job at a residence for people with developmental disabilities. She said she saw directly the impact of the coronavirus, which killed several residents of the facility where she used to work. She debated what to do, but eventually decided that taking the vaccine still felt too risky for her.
Ms. Carden, who lives in Bartlesville, Okla., Is worried about potential long-term as well as short-term side effects such as headaches because she already suffers from migraines.
“I’m scared,” she said. “It takes years to come out with a vaccine, and they come out with it so fast – I don’t trust it.”
Nursing homeowners are trying to convince workers that shootings are safe by holding webinars and other information-sharing seminars, with top executives being publicly vaccinated and highlighting employees who choose to take photos earlier. .
PruittHealth Inc., a company in Norcross, Ga., With about 102 nursing homes and assisted living facilities, said every vaccine-receiving staff will receive a free breakfast at a Waffle House restaurant and will also be , participated in a continuous raffle that will be delivering prizes such as televisions. “We really want to create a certain emotion,” said Neil Pruitt, executive director.
Lawyers said employers are generally legally allowed to mandate Covid-19 vaccines for workers, a position that was consolidated last week in the guidelines published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But nursing homeowners say they do not intend to apply for the vaccine. Many facilities are already facing staffing after months of pandemic challenges.
—Jon Kamp and Jacob Gershman contributed to this article.
Write to Anna Wilde Mathews at [email protected] and Sarah Toy at [email protected]
Copyright © 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All rights reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8