Kansas County Health Department’s 4 Nurses Refused To Give COVID-19 Vaccines

• All four nurses in a Kansas county health department have refused to give patients the COVID-19 vaccines.

• The administrator of the health department shared misinformation about vaccines as part of their reasoning.

• The county will contract with other nurses to distribute the vaccine.

• Visit the Business Insider homepage for more stories.

The four nurses working in the Coffey County Department of Health in Kansas said they would not give people the COVID-19 vaccine, a sign of the spread of vaccine misinformation, even among medical professionals .

At a January 4 county commission meeting, health department administrator Lindsay Payer said they were unwilling to administer the COVID-19 vaccine, The Daily Beast reported.

“My staff are not comfortable with this. It’s new technology that we’ve never seen before,” Payer told the Council of Commissioners at the meeting, which is available on YouTube.

MNA vaccines, like those currently distributed against the coronavirus, have been studied since the 1990s.

Read more: What to tell a friend skeptical of the coronavirus vaccine

Payer said she and other nurses in the department were uncomfortable with the vaccines and unsure of their safety, citing inaccurate vaccine information. She told the board that the health department would hire outpatient nurses who would be ready to distribute the vaccine.

Pfizer and Moderna’s coronavirus vaccines have been studied in tens of thousands of people. Pfizer’s advanced trial, for example, included more than 43,000 people. Vaccines have not been rushed – countries and organizations have invested heavily in all stages of the development process, which has saved time. Scientists were also able to build on previous work on vaccines against MERS and SARS, which are also coronaviruses.

Data on both vaccines were reviewed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration before the agency issued emergency use authorizations for injections. The FDA has found the injections to be very effective and safe for most people.

The story continues

As of January 13, Payer and other nurses in the Coffey County Health Department had not changed their minds. She told 13 News in Topeka that it was a personal decision of each nurse and not a message for or against the vaccine.

Read more: As an autism researcher I have been dealing with anti-vax misinformation for years. Here’s how we can fight it as the COVID vaccine rolls out

County doctor Dr Jeff Sloyer refuted Payer’s misinformation at the next meeting.

“These two vaccines have been very well studied,” he said, according to 13 News from Topeka.

The Kansas Department of Health and Environment shared a statement with 13 News on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines.

“The data demonstrates that the known and potential benefits of this vaccine outweigh the known and potential harms of COVID-19 infection,” the department said.

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