The long-awaited coronavirus vaccine in the United States has been in resistance for an unlikely quarter: a staggering number of health workers who have seen first-hand the death and misery inflicted by COVID-19 refuse to fire.
It is happening in nursing homes and, to a lesser degree, in hospitals, with employees expressing what experts say are unfounded fears of the side effects of vaccines that developed at a record rate. More than three weeks after the campaign, in some places 80% of staff are retained.
“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 postponing vaccination. “In the end, as a man of science, I just want to see what the data show. And give me the full details. “
Alarmed by the phenomenon, some managers have hung from free breakfasts at Waffle House to the raffle of a car to get employees to roll up their sleeves. Some states have threatened to let other people stand in front of health workers in line to receive gunfire.
“It simply came to our notice then. It’s alarmingly low, ”said Neil Pruitt, CEO of PruittHealth, which runs nearly 100 long-term care homes in the south, where less than 3 in 10 workers who have offered the vaccine so far have accepted.
Many medical facilities, from Florida to Washington state, have boasted of accepting the shots almost universally, and workers have proudly spread their images on social media receiving the vaccine. Elsewhere, however, the unit has stumbled.
Although the federal government has not released any number of people who offered them, vaccines have appeared across the country.
In Illinois, a large division has opened in state-run veteran homes between residents and staff. The discrepancy was worse at the veterans ’home in Manteno, where 90% of residents were vaccinated, but only 18% of staff members.
In rural Ashland, Alabama, about 90 of Clay County Hospital’s 200 workers have not yet agreed to be vaccinated, even with the site so invaded by COVID-19 patients that oxygen is ends and beds have been added to the intensive care unit. , divided by plastic sheets.
The setback comes amid the deadliest phase of the outbreak to date, with more than 350,000 deaths, and could hamper the government’s effort to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population to achieve the “immunity of the flock”.
Administrators and public health officials have expressed hope that more health workers will choose to get vaccinated as they watch their colleagues take the shots without problems.
Oregon doctor Noble said he will wait until April or May to receive the shots. He said it is vital for public health authorities not to exaggerate what they know about vaccines. This is particularly important, he said, for blacks like him who distrust the government’s medical guidance because of past failures and abuses, such as the famous Tuskegee experiment.
Medical journals have published extensive data on vaccines and the Food and Drug Administration has made their analysis public. But misinformation about traits has spread enormously online, including falsehoods that cause fertility problems.
Stormy Tatom, 30, a hospital ICU nurse in Beaumont, Texas, said she decided not to get vaccinated for now “due to unknown long-term side effects.”
“I would say at least half of my co-workers feel the same way,” Tatom said.
There have been no signs of widespread serious side effects from vaccines and scientists say the drugs have been rigorously tested in the tens of thousands and examined by independent experts.
States have begun to increase pressure. The South Carolina governor gave health workers until Jan. 15 to get a shot or “get to the bottom of the line.” Georgia’s top health official has allowed some vaccines to be diverted to other front-line workers, including firefighters and police, out of frustration with the slow recruitment.
“There’s vaccine available, but it’s literally sitting in the freezers,” said public health commissioner Dr. Kathleen Toomey. “It simply came to our notice then. We have lives to save. “
Nursing homes were one of the institutions with priority for the shootings, as the virus has cut them off a wide strip. Residents and long-term care staff account for approximately 38% of the country’s COVID-19 fatalities.
In West Virginia, only about 55 percent of nursing home workers accepted 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 workers in state nursing homes have been shot. North Carolina’s top public health official estimated that more than half denied the vaccine.
SavaSeniorCare has offered cash to the 169 long-term care homes in its network of 20 states to pay for gift cards, socially spaced parties or other incentives. But so far, data from about a third of their households show that 55% of workers have rejected the vaccine.
CVS and Walgreens, which have been hired by most U.S. nursing homes to administer COVID-19 vaccines, have not released specific data on the acceptance rate. CVS said residents agreed to be vaccinated at an “encouragingly high” rate, but that “initial recruitment among staff is low,” in part because of efforts to falter when employees receive their shots.
Some facilities have vaccinated workers in stages, so staff are not left out at the same time if they suffer minor side effects, which can 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 sciences.
He noted that health workers represent a wide range of jobs and background 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 hesitation to subside as more people are vaccinated and public health officials get their message across.
Some places have already seen changes, such as Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
“The most important thing that helped us gain confidence in our staff was to see how other staff members were vaccinated, they were okay, they were leaving the room, you know, they don’t grow a third ear and therefore really it’s like an avalanche, ”he said. Dra. Catherine O’Neal, chief physician. “The first hundreds we had created 300 more who wanted the vaccine.”
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Associated Press writers Jake Bleiberg in 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.