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The 26,000 workers at the Houston Methodist Hospital can expect to receive extra cash in March – so much COVID-19[female[feminine vaccine.
Hospital President and CEO Dr Marc Bloom told employees in an emailed letter last week that they could expect a $ 500 bonus as a “thank you for your persistence. throughout a difficult year 2020 ”. Eligibility criteria for receiving the award include vaccination against COVID-19, “fulfilling our obligation as healthcare workers to lead the community,” he said.
The hospital also gave employees $ 500 bonuses about six weeks ago for their work during the pandemic, which has killed nearly 353,000 Americans. Houston has been particularly hard hit, with nearly 2,700 deaths and more than 247,000 confirmed cases in surrounding Harris County.
Employers, including healthcare providers, face a balance in getting their workforce immunized. At this time, vaccination is not mandatory for Methodist employees in Houston, but “eventually will be” for most workers, Bloom wrote. Although many companies fail to make the blows compulsory, they have the right to require vaccination for most workers under the recently adopted Federal Employment Guidelines.
“I think people want it more than they don’t want it,” said a spokesperson for the Houston Methodists, who received their second dose of the vaccine on Monday.
There is at least anecdotal evidence of the reluctance of some healthcare workers to get vaccinated, Dr Joseph Varon, chief of intensive care at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, recently relayed the concerns of nurses on his unit to NPR.
Concerns about COVID-19 vaccines are greatest among African Americans, according to the Pew Research Center, which recently found that less than half of black adults plan to be vaccinated, compared to 60% of all Americans who intend to be vaccinated.
African Americans have less confidence in the medical system than white patients, and often receive worse care, studies show. This in part reflects the history of medical abuse of black Americans, including the experimental operations on enslaved black women between 1845 and 1849 by Alabama surgeon J. Marion Sims as well as the infamous Experiences of the Tuskegee Institute in the 1930s who examined the progression of syphilis in black men.
Fears that political considerations could trump security concerns, especially when it comes to African Americans, prompted the country’s oldest group of black doctors to form a task force. to track data as drug manufacturers developed vaccines. The group expressed support for the two vaccines currently being distributed last month.
Some experts have supported the idea of offering employees a financial incentive to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The ‘adult’ version of the doctor handing out candy to children, fortunately, indicates a solution: paying people who get vaccinated (or get vaccinated, because more than one may be necessary)”, Robert Litan, a senior non -Fellow chairman of the Brookings Institution, said in an August opinion piece for the Washington think tank. “How much? I don’t know of any solid science that can answer that question, but my hunch is that anything less than $ 1,000 per person will do.”
But other economists say such payments could backfire, citing studies that suggest offering money in exchange for getting the shot could lead them to conclude the injections are risky.
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