CDC report indicates 62 percent of nursing home staff refuse to be vaccinated
New data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms what anecdotal reports from nursing home administrators around the country have been suggesting for weeks: that a significant number of their workers are refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, at least when they are initially offered it.
The CDC reported Monday that among 11,460 nursing homes where pharmacists from CVS and Walgreens held vaccination clinics between mid-December and mid-January, 78% of residents got immunized on average, but only 37.5% of staff members did.
The federal government contracted with the two pharmacy chains to deliver shots to residents and workers at most of the nation’s long-term-care facilities. To date, the companies have administered more than 3.1 million first doses and almost 600,000 second doses.
They are generally making three visits to each nursing home and assisted living residence, and some are reporting that staff members who declined to get vaccinated during the first visit agree to do so on the second.
Inoculating people who live and work in long-term-care facilities is particularly urgent because deaths related to COVID-19 in the facilities account for nearly 40% of the country’s pandemic fatalities.
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