With Massachusetts’s first respondents next in line to receive the coronavirus vaccine, the Auburn Police Department, like many law enforcement agencies across the state, surveyed its officers earlier this month to see how many they plan to be. vaccinated against viral respiratory infection.
The results were convincing. Less than half of the department’s members, 29 police officers, said they plan to get vaccinated, while 31 said they didn’t, with the city’s chief of police among those who chose not to get vaccinated.
“Given my age and the fact that I don’t have any underlying health problems, if I caught COVID, I would have more than a 99% chance of surviving,” Auburn Police Chief Andrew J. Sluckis Jr. told MassLive in a telephone interview.
The 56-year-old police chief pointed out that the long-term side effects of the newly developed vaccine are still unknown and, unlike previous vaccines that took years to develop, those from COVID-19 took months.
“I will consider my 99 to 1 chances of not getting the vaccine,” said Sluckis. “You couldn’t pay me to get it.”
The discoveries at Auburn are not atypical.
Massachusetts officials said there are a number of first responders who do not plan to be vaccinated, whether for allergies or personal reasons. Although the division may not be nearly 50-50, as in Auburn, the number of people who choose not to be vaccinated is significant.
“People have legitimate concerns,” said Sluckis.
For many residents, however, coronavirus vaccines, such as those manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, have been a godsend, a light at the end of the tunnel amid a pandemic that has hit a monumental tribute worldwide, with no country seeing a greater number of virus-related infections or deaths than in the United States.
The first respondents and others who put themselves at the forefront of the pandemic witnessed its number of victims first hand.
Numerous police and firefighters in Massachusetts – in Boston, Attleboro, Worcester, Springfield and other communities – contracted COVID-19 at various points during the public health crisis, and several were hospitalized with the virus.
Among them is Norton Det. Sgt. Stephen Desfosses, who was recently sedated and intubated after contracting the virus, in addition to pneumonia and flu in early December.
Other rescuers, such as Taunton policeman John Borges and Rutland policeman John D. Songy, died of viral respiratory infection.
According to the state’s three-phase plan for the launch of the coronavirus vaccine, the first respondents should receive their immunization doses as early as January 11, according to authorities. Their vaccinations follow those of other demographic groups at risk, including frontline employees in hospitals and residents of long-term care facilities.
Firefighters in Quincy, Massachusetts, were among the first responders in the state to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. While officials are looking to distribute more doses of the vaccine, however, many police and fire officials say they do not plan to be vaccinated. (Friends of Firefighters Quincy IAFF Local 792)
On December 31, firefighters in Quincy became some of the first in their profession in Massachusetts to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a Facebook post by the city’s fire department.
Other municipalities continue to make plans for the inevitable administration of the vaccine.
The cities of Ashland, Hopkinton, Northborough, Southborough and Westborough announced on Thursday that they are partnering to coordinate a vaccination clinic for all public safety officials and first responders in their communities.
“It is a crucial step for rescuers to be able to ensure their personal safety and the safety of their families and loved ones while dealing with the pandemic together,” said Mark Leahy, executive director of the Massachusetts Police Chiefs Association and former Chief Northborough police station. “People have to protect themselves, their families, their loved ones and their co-workers.”
The vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna has already proven to be reliable. The two immunization candidates underwent months-long large-scale tests and were authorized for use by the federal government earlier this month, each proving to be nearly 95% effective at the end of their tests.
No serious safety concerns were noted during vaccine testing, and the adverse effects of candidates for immunization were limited, according to Pfizer and Moderna.
The efficacy and safety data surrounding the tens of thousands of people who participated in Pfizer and Moderna vaccine tests will be tracked for another two years, according to the companies.
Still, a significant portion of the world’s population is wary of vaccines, skeptical, like Sluckis, about the rapid development schedule and how immunizations can impact the human body in the long run.
Sixty to 70% of Auburn’s firefighters, for example, plan to get vaccinated, leaving 40 to 30% who don’t plan to do so, according to the city’s fire chief, Stephen Coleman.
“It is a little more than half. It is probably closer to 70% for us that we are receiving, ”said the fire chief, adding that he is in the majority of people who plan to get vaccinated.
Some members of the department who do not plan to get the vaccine know they will have an allergic reaction if they do, he added.
Coleman pointed out that firefighters in Auburn and other communities, especially those with dual paramedic roles, often come into contact with patients with COVID-19, making the need for vaccination more urgent.
“We are only in closer contact with really sick people,” he said.
The fire chief’s sentiment was echoed by Sluckis, who noted that if he were a firefighter and not a policeman, his opinion about receiving the vaccine would likely change.
“If I were working in the ambulance and transporting people positive for COVID to the hospital daily, I would choose to get the vaccine,” he said. “But I am not working on that ability. In my set of circumstances, I would not accept it. If you are working in the hospital with COVID patients, you would probably choose to get the vaccine, but working as a police officer, these are an entirely different set of circumstances. “
The Auburn Fire Department. (Google Maps)
The percentage of firefighters in Auburn who plan to be vaccinated appears to match the numbers of other fire departments across the state, according to Rich MacKinnon Jr., president of the Massachusetts Professional Fire Department (PFFM). The union represents more than 12,000 firefighters and emergency medical technicians across the community.
In the Boston department, about 60% of firefighters want to get the vaccine, and based on research in other departments in the state, about 60 to 70% of firefighters in the community as a whole plan to get vaccinated, according to MacKinnon.
The high risk of exposure to COVID-19 at work is the main reason why firefighters need to be vaccinated as soon as possible, he argued.
“We had firefighters in ICU units, hospitals,” said MacKinnon. “Currently (as of December 31) we have 802 members with the virus and 615 quarantined. The more answers we give, the more exposures we will find. Our COVID responses have obviously increased as the numbers have increased. This is a risk that we willingly take, but that is why we need to be among the first to be vaccinated ”.
Pressure to vaccinate firefighters in Massachusetts has gained prominence in recent weeks, with PFFM criticizing the state for its vaccination plan for early respondents.
MacKinnon said the state has no viable plan to vaccinate firefighters in Massachusetts cities and towns, instead leaving the task of vaccinating early city respondents to local health councils, many of which differ greatly in size and resources. .
Where a fireman can go to get vaccinated, when he can get vaccinated and who will vaccinate him are some of the basic questions that have not yet been answered by the state, according to MacKinnon.
“We are seeing our brothers and sisters firefighters across the country and even in neighboring states being vaccinated now,” noted MacKinnon. “There are a lot of unanswered structural problems.”
Unlike the effort to vaccinate firefighters, the effort to immunize the Massachusetts police against COVID-19 has not received much attention. However, the police’s attitude toward the vaccine may be improving as more and more people are immunized, according to Leahy.
Massachusetts police were surveyed for weeks about their attitudes toward the vaccine, whether they have good, bad or indifferent opinions about it.
At first, many police officers expressed negative attitudes towards the vaccine, but opinions slowly changed to become more confident about immunization, according to Leahy.
“A month ago, there was a lot of hesitation and there seemed to be a lot of concern about the unknown,” he said. “Now the tide has really turned to, ‘When can we do this?’ “
“Positive attitudes prevail strongly,” he added.
Tragedies involving police officers, such as Borges’ death in Taunton, showed how important it is for rescuers to be vaccinated, according to Leahy.
“I sincerely hope that people will take this as an alert,” he said. “This is important, and rescuers have considerable exposure to the virus in their daily tasks.”
Although both Leahy and MacKinnon believe that it is important for the first respondents to be vaccinated, they avoid saying that there should be a mandate. Both said that taking the coronavirus vaccine is a personal decision.
There is no indication that the authorities will require the first respondents to be vaccinated. Spokesmen for the Springfield and Worcester police departments said officers would not be required to do so, and Massachusetts State Police officials declined to comment when asked.
“We are finalizing the logistics for administering the vaccine to members of the Department. We plan to administer the vaccine at the regional MSP facilities in a way that will avoid a shortage of coverage in barracks and units, and we hope to be in a position to start vaccination in January, ”said a state police spokesman.
In Auburn, the city administrator, as well as the community police and fire chiefs, discussed whether it is necessary for police and firefighters to receive the vaccine. They chose to make vaccines voluntary, according to Sluckis.
“I don’t think you should be able to impose a vaccine that, in my opinion, is still experimental,” said the police chief. “It doesn’t feel right to me.”
Officials from the COVID-19 Command Center and the state’s Public Security Executive Office are due to meet Thursday with the first respondents to review the planning of the vaccination process. More information will be made available soon about the vaccine launch, according to a spokesman for the Massachusetts Executive Office for Health and Human Services.
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