Doctors in New York massively refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19
'06.01.2021'
Lyudmila Balabay
The State and City of New York released additional plans on January 5 to accelerate the COVID-19 vaccination process. But even judging by these plans, it will be a long time before members of the general public can get vaccinated. Nevertheless, the queue can move very quickly, as health workers who have the right to be vaccinated in the first place refuse vaccinations en masse, writes Pix 11.
At the moment, only people in group 1A - health care workers who have frequent contact with high-risk patients - are eligible for the vaccine.
Elizabeth Johnson, a physical therapist who works with elderly patients, meets these criteria and has already been vaccinated. She really wanted to get vaccinated, but her enthusiasm is not shared by all colleagues.
Dr Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health and Hospitals, said a significant proportion of the state's healthcare workers have refused vaccinations.
“I think about 30%, to be exact,” Katz said. Moreover, according to estimates New York Post, in New York City there are about 50%.
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Katz added that almost all doctors in the 11 health and hospitals networks have opted to get vaccinated, but nurses are different and they often choose not to get vaccinated.
“Think about what nurses have been through in the last 10 months, how many times science has admitted that it was wrong about the situation, how many times it turned out that everything is not what we thought. They went through every day of this chaos, ”said Katz, trying to explain the reasons for the skeptical attitude of nurses to the vaccine.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio believes that for now, given the situation, the city needs to move forward and vaccinate other people. He asked the governor to loosen Group 1A rules so that more health professionals can qualify for the vaccine.
He also said the city plans to open more vaccination sites by the coming weekend. Some of them will work around the clock, 7 days a week.
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There are currently 125 vaccination sites open in New York City, and 35 more will open by the end of the weekend, according to city health officials. From December 14 to January 5, 110 people were vaccinated in the city.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo estimates that it will take another four weeks to vaccinate health workers before the state can move to vaccinate other groups.
