About half of Santa Clara County sheriff’s employees have rejected the vaccine

About half of Santa Clara County sheriff’s office employees have refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, meaning dozens of staff work in unvaccinated prisons, according to the office.

While 861 of the department’s more than 1,800 employees have received the two doses of vaccine, nearly 800 more have refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, sheriff’s officials said during the county’s Public Safety and Justice Committee meeting. Another 200 or so employees still do not meet the requirements to receive it.

The high number of denials left county supervisors staggered Thursday, mostly because the number of inmates who have been infected has risen more than 500 since the start of the new year. Of the employees who have rejected the vaccine, about 400 work in the custody division.

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

At least 536 county inmates have obtained COVID-19 since last March, according to the sheriff’s office information board, with nearly half of those cases reported since it began in 2021. In early January, prisons went reported 36 and 35 new cases within the same week, which marked the two highest totals in a day. The board has not been updated since January 18th.

Sheriff Laurie Smith said “there are many reasons” why staff have rejected the vaccine. Some have cited medical reasons, while others work in cemetery shifts which according to the office make the appointment difficult. A spokesman for a union of deputies did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

“The fundamental question is whether we can demand it and if not, what can we do?” Smith said.

The answer is still unclear from a legal standpoint, said Jeff Smith, a county executive. For now, sheriff’s officials have told unvaccinated deputies to wear N-95 masks; imprisoned people receive cloth masks.

Jeff Smith, however, backed down the office’s claim that the vaccination rate could be blamed on logistical difficulties.

“The main problem is that people reject the vaccine,” Jeff Smith said. “It’s not that there’s no access.”

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

As of Jan. 14, city frontline workers in custody, law enforcement and 911 dispatchers were expected to begin receiving the first doses of the vaccine and firefighters had to receive your second dose. The city declined to provide updated statistics to this news organization on Thursday.

County Ombudsman Molly O’Neal said Friday in a text that her office would “happily take” vaccines rejected by sheriff’s staff because “we desperately need them, want them and believe in science.” Last week, dozens of advocates convened a meeting of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to request vaccination or signed a letter to request it.

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

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

“For the thousands of people who remain in our custody, it is up to us to protect them and keep them safe,” Ellenberg said. “To the extent that staff do not contribute to their safety by refusing to be vaccinated, we need to take additional steps to protect people who have no choice.”