The desperately awaited vaccination attempt against the coronavirus in the US is facing resistance in an unlikely quarter: a surprising number of health workers who have directly seen the death and misery caused by COVID-19 refuse to be shot.
It happens in nursing homes and, to a lesser extent, in hospitals, with employees expressing what experts say are unfounded fears of vaccine side effects that have been developed at a record rate. More than three weeks after the campaign, some places see up to 80% of staff being retained.
“I don’t think anyone wants to be a guinea pig,” said Dr. Stephen Noble, a 42-year-old cardiothoracic surgeon from Portland, Oregon, who is postponing vaccination. “At the end of the day, as a scientist, I just want to see what the data looks like. And give me the full details. “
Alarmed by the phenomenon, some administrators hung 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 pass in front of online health workers for the shootings.
“It simply came to our notice then. It’s alarmingly 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 who have offered the vaccine so far have accepted it.
Many medical facilities from Florida to Washington have boasted of almost universal acceptance of the shots, and workers have proudly plastered pictures of themselves on social media receiving the vaccine. Elsewhere, however, unity was hampered.
While the federal government has not released data on the number of people offered the vaccines they have received, pieces of resistance have sprung up across the country.
In Illinois, a large division has opened in the homes of state-run veterans between residents and staff. The discrepancy was the worst at the veterans’ home in Manteno, where 90% of residents were vaccinated, but only 18% of staff members.
In rural Ashland, Alabama, about 90 out of about 200 workers at Clay County Hospital have not yet agreed to be vaccinated, even with the place so overtaken by COVID-19 patients that oxygen is depleted and beds have were added to the intensive care unit, divided by plastic wrap.
The rejection comes amid the deadliest phase of the outbreak, with more than 350,000 deaths and could hamper the government’s effort to vaccinate between 70 percent and 85 percent of the U.S. population to obtain “herd immunity.”
Administrators and public health officials have expressed hope that more health workers will choose to be vaccinated because they see their colleagues firing without problems.
Oregon doctor Noble said he would wait until April or May to get the shots. He said it was vital for public health authorities not to exaggerate what they know about vaccines. This is especially important, he said, for people of color like him who are distrustful of government medical guidance because of past failures and abuses, such as the infamous Tuskegee experiment.
Medical journals have published extensive data on vaccines, and the Food and Drug Administration has made its analysis public. But misinformation about the photos has spread wildly online, including fakes that they cause fertility problems.
Stormy Tatom, 30, a nurse at a hospital in Beaumont, Texas, said she had decided not to get vaccinated for the time being “because of unknown long-term side effects.”
“I would say that at least half of my colleagues feel the same way,” Tatom said.
There have been no signs of widespread severe side effects from vaccines, and scientists say the drugs have been rigorously tested by the tens of thousands and verified by independent experts.
States have begun to increase pressure. The governor of South Carolina gave health workers until Jan. 15 to get a hit or “move behind the line.” Georgia’s top health official has allowed some vaccines to be redirected to other front-line workers, including firefighters and police, out of frustration with slow absorption.
“There is a vaccine available, but it is literally in the freezers,” said Public Health Commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey. “It is unacceptable. We have lives to save. “
Nursing homes have been among the institutions given priority for shootings because the virus has cut a terrible band. Long-term care residents and staff account for about 38% of the nation’s COVID-19 deaths.
In West Virginia, only about 55 percent of nursing home workers agreed with the shots when they were first offered last month, according to Martin Wright, who heads the West Virginia Health Care Association.
“It’s a race against social media,” Wright said of the fight against vaccine fakes.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said only 40 percent of state health care workers were shot. The chief public health official in North Carolina estimated that more than half refuse the vaccine there.
SavaSeniorCare offered cash 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 its homes show that 55% of workers have refused the vaccine.
CVS and Walgreens, which were contracted by most nursing homes in the United States to administer COVID-19 vaccines, did not publish details on the acceptance rate. CVS said residents agreed to be immunized at an “encouragingly high” rate, but “initial staff absorption is low”, partly due to staggered efforts when employees receive fire.
Some facilities have vaccinated workers in stages so that staff are not ruled out suddenly if they suffer minor side effects, which may include fever and pain.
The hesitation is not surprising, given the mixed message from political leaders and online misinformation, said Dr. Wilbur Chen, a professor at the University of Maryland who specializes in vaccine science.
He noted that health workers represent a wide range of jobs and environments and said that they are not necessarily better informed than the general public.
“They don’t know what to think either,” Chen said. However, he said he expects the hesitation to go away as more people are vaccinated and public health officials send their message.
Some places have already seen changes, such as Our Lady of the Lake Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“The biggest thing that helped us gain the trust of our staff was to look at the other staff members to get vaccinated, to be OK, to get out of the room, to know, not to grow a third ear and so on. it’s really like an avalanche, “said Dr. Catherine O’Neal, a primary care physician. “The first few hundred we created another 300 who wanted the vaccine.”
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Associated Press writers Jake Bleiberg of Dallas contributed to this report; 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.