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

About half of employees in the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, meaning that dozens of employees are working in unvaccinated prisons, according to the office.

Although 861 of the department’s more than 1,800 employees received both doses of the vaccine, nearly 800 more refused to take the COVID-19 vaccine, the sheriff’s officials reported Thursday during the Justice and Public Safety Committee meeting of the county. Another approximately 200 employees have not yet qualified to receive it.

The high number of refusals left county supervisors reeling on Thursday, especially as the number of people incarcerated who have been infected has surpassed 500 since the beginning of the new year. Of the employees who refused 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 the jail who have not been vaccinated.”

At least 536 county inmates have received COVID-19 since last March, according to the sheriff’s office reporting panel, with almost half of those cases reported since the beginning of 2021. In early January, prisons registered 36 and 35 new cases in the same week, marking the two highest totals in a single day in history. The panel has not been updated since January 18.

Sheriff Laurie Smith said “there are a number of reasons” why officials refused the vaccine. Some cited medical reasons, while others work in cemetery shifts that, according to the office, make it difficult to schedule an appointment. A spokesman for the union of deputies did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.

“The fundamental question is: can we demand this – and if not, what can we do?” Smith said.

The answer is not yet legally clear, said county executive Jeff Smith. For now, sheriff officials have told unvaccinated deputies that they must wear N-95 masks; incarcerated people receive cloth masks.

Jeff Smith, however, rejected the office’s claim that the vaccination fee can be attributed to logistical difficulties.

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

The lower vaccination rate contrasts with other public security departments in the area. As of January 12, about 71% of San Jose Fire Department personnel, including emergency medical technicians and paramedics, had received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a municipal report at the time.

As of January 14, city frontline officials in 911 custody, police and dispatchers should begin receiving their first doses of the vaccine and firefighters should receive their second dose. The city declined to provide updated statistics for this news organization on Thursday.

County public defender Molly O’Neal said in a text on Friday that her office would “happily take” vaccines refused by the sheriff’s team because “we desperately need them, want them and believe in science”. Last week, dozens of defenders called the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors to request the vaccination or signed a letter requesting the vaccination.

“Any custodian who refuses to be vaccinated must be removed from the custody unit as a danger to incarcerated individuals,” added O’Neal.

Ellenberg requested that a “proactive education” or city hall be organized to allow deputies to ask questions or work on 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,” said Ellenberg. “To the extent that the team is not contributing to your safety by refusing to be vaccinated, we need to take additional measures to protect people who have no choice.”