New York City had some of the lowest vaccination rates for both nursing home employees and workers in any region of the state, according to new data released by the state this week. Sixty-five percent of residents and 40 percent of workers received vaccines by Wednesday. The Northern Country and the Capital Regions had the highest vaccination rates.
Overall, the data shows that residents of long-term care facilities are taking vaccines en masse, while staff at qualified nursing facilities are late. Across the state, 72% of residents and 44% of workers were vaccinated.
New York nursing homes were devastated by COVID-19 at the beginning of the pandemic. Nearly 13,000 residents died, discoveries released by the state only on Thursday, following the publication of a report from the attorney general’s office accusing the state of underestimating the dead.
On Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said 18,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, originally scheduled for long-term care facilities, were released for wider distribution.
“I am not surprised; we’ve seen hesitation among the team when it comes to flu vaccines in the past too, ”said Dr. Jasmine Travers, assistant professor at New York University’s Rory Meyers College of Nursing, who said that studies tend to look at vaccination rates higher in hospitals and among nurses and doctors compared to certified, low-paying nursing assistants who do most practical care within the wards.
This pattern has spread to the COVID-19 pandemic. Even before any candidate received emergency clearance, a UCLA Health System survey in November showed that nurses were four times more likely to resist COVID-19 vaccines than doctors.
It is difficult to say why this is happening. Some experts blame the general misinformation, as research shows that the hesitation rates of the COVID-19 vaccine among healthcare professionals are on par with the lay public.
LaRay Brown, the CEO of One Brooklyn Health, which has three hospitals in Brooklyn, was surprised by the employees who did not rush to get the vaccine, but also pointed out: “Most of our employees are people of color and have learned about historical ways why the US government didn’t do so well with people of color, “referring to Tuskegee’s study and general systemic racism.
Others suggest that health professionals are taking too long to make a decision, while others cite potential blind spots in professional education. Travers said the cause needs to be identified as soon as possible.
“We really need to sit down and understand why nursing assistants are refusing to get the vaccine,” said Travers, but “even more than that, it’s including nursing assistants in decision making.”
“We did a very bad job, including many essential workers in setting up the nursing home at the table,” she said.
With additional reporting by Fred Mogul