Bill White stood before his wary staff inside his New London nursing home earlier this week to tell them a long-awaited vaccine — the light at the end of what has been a very dark tunnel for nursing homes battling COVID-19 — was on its way and he could sense some uneasiness about getting the shots.
“Staff, especially younger staff, have been more skeptical,” said White, the owner of Beechwood Post Acute & Transitional Care.
“This is how I started the conversation. ‘Do you know anyone who had polio? You don’t, do you? You know why? Because the people that are now our residents took a vaccine and because they did, they kept us safe,’ ” White said. “Now it’s our turn.”
But on Friday even as they learned the dates, starting on Dec. 21, that either CVS or Walgreen’s personnel would be showing up at their facilities to administer the vaccine, many providers expressed concerns that as much as half of their staff wouldn’t get vaccinated.
A combination of little information about the vaccination’s efficacy, uncertainty about what happens to their jobs if they have a reaction to the shots and a general distrust of both state officials and providers has many workers wondering what to do.
“How can we tell our members to take the vaccine when we don’t have any information about it?” said Pedro Zayas, communications director for SEIU 1199, which represents thousands of nursing home employees.
“In any group you are going to have naysayers but we have had 15 nursing home staffers die from COVID and hundreds get sick so they don’t really trust what the state is saying or what the providers are saying,” Zayas said.
Hospitals also are wondering how many of their employees will get the vaccine when it becomes available in the next few days.
Eric Arlia, Hartford HealthCare pharmacy director, said the preliminary results of an internal survey show that about 60% of workers are “highly likely” to take the vaccine as soon as they can. Arlia said the hospital system plans to run informational campaigns to increase that percentage.
“It’s really an effort for not just our own colleagues, but to have everybody feel more confident in the vaccine,” Arlia said on Friday. “It will be a focus of ours to help to make sure that our staff feels confident in the vaccine and is more interested in getting vaccinated.”
Dr. Patrick Troy, a pulmonologist at Hartford Hospital, said that he understands why some people are concerned about the vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccines were developed in record time, which can make it worrying for some, he said.
“Yes, we’re health care professionals, but the questions they have … they’re a lot like the questions that my patients ask, because this is a new process, this is a different process, and that’s OK,” Troy said.
AFT Connecticut Vice President John Brady said while they haven’t done any formal surveys of nurses and other health care employees in the union, anecdotally they expect 60-70% of health care workers to get vaccinated.
“If they feel comfortable getting it we want them to get it and speak about it publicly,” Brady said. “We know people will be watching us since we’re the first group.”
The CDC has designated nursing home residents and staff, along with health care workers. The first doses of the Pfizer vaccine are expected to reach hospitals as soon as Dec. 14. Vaccines at nursing homes will be administered by CVS and Walgreen’s, through a federal contract, to both residents and staff, beginning in Connecticut on Dec. 21.
Nursing homes across the country have been devastated by the virus and Connecticut is no different, with nearly 70% of the state’s deaths having been nursing home residents and thousands more have been infected and survived.
State officials and providers see the vaccine as a way to hopefully end the trail of death.
This is a means to an end of this pandemic for all of us,” iCares Health Network Vice President of Business Development David Skoczulek said.
“We have some sense that participation may be low. This is a group of employees that aren’t very trusting of the system. We know there will be some skepticism from the staff. We’re going to do everything we can to encourage staff to get it.”
Skoczulek has put together a question and answer document that is posted on the company website and will be on the walls in every facility. Other providers are putting flyers in employees paychecks alerting them when the vaccine will be available and providing information.
Zayas said there are many logistical problems as well with getting the vaccines.
“What if you work third shift? Are you going to have to come back to work in the middle of the day to get a shot and will you get paid for doing that?” Zayas said. “Or what if you have a reaction to the shot, which I am sure there will be, are you going to get workmen’s compensation for not being able to work?”
At his press conference on Thursday Gov. Ned Lamont said that he didn’t think mandating the vaccine would be necessary and that people will do the right thing.
“It’s very important that people get vaccinated there (hospitals and nursing homes),” Lamont said. “I think most people overwhelmingly and voluntarily will get the vaccine.”
As private companies, providers could mandate that workers take the vaccine as some hospitals do for flu shots but none have at this point.
Zayas said that’s because staff shortages make it impossible for them to risk having a bunch of employees not come to work.
“They are already at borderline dangerous levels when it comes to short-staffing so they cannot risk it,” Zayas said.