- Ohio Governor Mike DeWine said 60% of the nursing home staff did not want to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
- “We are not going to do them, but we would like them to have greater compliance,” DeWine said at a news conference.
- According to the Covid Tracking Project, 38% of all COVID-19 deaths in the USA were resident in nursing homes.
- In Ohio, staff and residents of nursing homes are receiving top vaccine priority.
- Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine expressed concern on Wednesday that very few frontline health workers were being vaccinated against COVID-19, and said that 60% of nursing home employees chose not to take the injection.
“We are not going to do them, but we would like them to have a greater compliment, DeWine said at a news conference on Wednesday, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
“Our message today is that the train may take a while to return.”
DeWine said he wanted to instill a “sense of urgency” among those eligible for the injection.
“I am not satisfied with the situation we are in Ohio in,” he said. “We are not moving fast enough, but we will get there.”
DeWine did not say why so many nursing home employees should not receive the vaccine.
Peter van Runkle, executive director of the Ohio Health Care Association, told Business Insider that misinformation on social media was among the factors that led health care workers to avoid the vaccine.
He said that people feared the vaccine was “too young and the process was rushed. The government is trying to do something to me – implant a microchip or do something harmful. It will sterilize me. It will give me COVID-19. All kind of things on social media.
“So we have a group that is just against vaccines in general, whether for COVID or anything else.
“Another group has had COVID and thinks it doesn’t need the vaccine.
“Probably the biggest fear is the unknown. How much will it make me sick? How long will it last?”
Vaccinating health care workers is a top priority for public health workers, and Van Runkle said the agency is redoubling efforts to change the narrative around the virus.
Residents in nursing homes account for 38% of all deaths from the virus in the United States, according to the COVID Tracking Project, released by The Atlantic magazine.
In the past few weeks, the number of COVID-19 deaths in Ohio nursing homes has increased, according to The Columbus Dispatch, underscoring the urgency of vaccinating the team.
The two vaccines that have been approved for use by the federal government’s health regulators are being launched in Ohio in partnership with pharmacies, including Walgreens and CVS.
Older adults and teachers are the next to receive the vaccine in the state, after frontline health professionals, according to the Ohio vaccination plan.