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Thousands of healthcare professionals and frontline workers across the United States are refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 as the vaccine rollout in America continues to stammer.
Nearly half of health care workers in California County and one hospital in Texas say they will not get the vaccine, 60% of nursing home staff in Ohio refuse the shot, and 40% of Los Angeles frontline workers won’t get it either, polls show.
Respondents to a number of surveys point to fears of dangerous side effects, posters in the healthcare worker forum say they feel being used as guinea pigs, and experts accuse misinformation.
Although life-threatening side effects are rare, examples of them emerged in the early days of the vaccine rollout with two healthcare workers in Alaska – one of whom now had a history of allergies – suffering from anaphylactic shock a few minutes after receiving the first dose of Pfizer. vaccine.
The problem is not unique to the United States. US and Dutch healthcare workers have complained of being used as guinea pigs.
But it’s a serious problem in the United States, where 3,000 people routinely die in just 24 hours, and the vaccine rollout is proceeding at a snail’s pace with only about 14% of the 20 million people that Operation Warp Speed has promised to vaccinate by the end. of 2020 receiving their first doses before New Year’s Day.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said on Thursday that 60% of nursing home workers refused the vaccine. According to the Los Angeles Times, up to 40% of healthcare workers in Los Angeles and 50% in Riverside County refuse to be vaccinated.
In Ohio, 60% of nursing home workers refuse coronavirus vaccines, as do half of healthcare workers in Riverside County, Calif., Despite high risks of COVID-19 and vaccines offered in first (file)
Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine are available across much of the United States, but are not being used
Health workers have been offered the first place to get vaccinated against COVID-19 in all states, following CDC recommendations to prioritize them.
Granting them early access was intended to protect nurses, doctors and hospital staff repeatedly exposed to COVID-19 patients.
Public health experts hoped that vaccinating health workers first would not only protect them from infection, but reduce the risk of the virus spreading and prevent hospitals from running out of staff.
But the assumption that healthcare workers wanted the vaccines failed to materialize.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said Thursday that about 60% of nurses refuse the vaccine.
“We are not going to manufacture them, but we want better compliance,” he said.
And our message today is this: The train may not be back for a while. We will eventually make it available to everyone, but this is the opportunity for you, and you should really think about getting it.
In Los Angeles County, between 20 and 40% of frontline workers refuse the COVID-19 shot, the Los Angeles Times reported.
In neighboring Riverside County, refusal is even more common, with half of frontline workers refusing coronavirus vaccines.
“ I choose the risk – the risk of having COVID or the risk of the vaccine unknown, ” said April Lu, a 31-year-old nurse in California, Los Angeles.
“I think I choose the risk of COVID. I can control this and prevent it a bit by wearing masks, but not 100% for sure.
The nurses’ refusal shouldn’t have come as a surprise to health officials, especially in California.
A Kaiser Family Health Foundation survey released on December 15 – just as the United States began distributing vaccines – found that 29% of people working in healthcare settings did not want to be vaccinated.
A national mandate for the COVID-19 vaccine would be unprecedented and is unlikely, even under the incoming administration of Biden.
Individual institutions, however, could demand shots.
For example, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) require that all clinically practicing staff get a flu shot in order to come to work.
Dr Anthony Fauci said he was “ sure ” that some institutions and businesses will demand vaccination and that “ everything will be on the table ” in terms of how to get more people vaccinated and end the pandemic, according to News Week.
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