According to a survey by the American Nurses Association, 36% of the 13,000 nurses surveyed said they would not voluntarily take the COVID-19 vaccine and 31% said they were unsure if they would take it.
In the same survey, 44% of nurses said they are not comfortable having conversations with their patients about COVID-19 vaccines.
This week, the first COVID-19 vaccines were shipped and administered in the United States and New York City as the death toll from the virus reaches 300,000 in the nation. The first person in America to receive the vaccine from pharmaceutical company Pfizer was Black intensive care nurse Sandra Lindsay of Long Island Jewish Medical Center.
The vaccine was administered by Black doctor Michelle Chester, which was live-streamed online for the world to see at Northwell Health.
“I hope this marks the beginning to the end of a very painful time in our history,” Lindsay said. “I want to instill public confidence that the vaccine is safe. We’re in a pandemic and we all need to do our part to put an end to the pandemic and to not give up too soon. There’s light at the end of the tunnel.”
However, Lindsay is one of what appears to be a dividing even split among healthcare workers about the vaccine. Black nurses are especially skeptical about the vaccine due to America’s history when it comes to the community’s medical treatment.
“Generations of Black Americans do not trust our nation’s health care system due to a longstanding history of health care inequities,” said American Nurse Foundation Executive Director Kate Judge. “There must be a concerted effort to share culturally relevant information and education to ensure that communities of color have access to and believe in the safety of life-saving vaccines and treatments.”
In September, the National Nurses United raised concerns about President Donald Trump’s rush to promote a COVID-19 vaccine without assurances that it will meet the highest test of public safety as its top priority.
“With 184,000 U.S. lives lost to COVID-19 under the watch of a president and administration that have left people exposed and dying even when known prevention measures, as other nations have proven, are available, placing an insufficiently tested product on the market will surely look like a dangerous experiment on the American people,” said NNU President Jean Ross, RN at the time.
The vaccine is first being given to healthcare workers and adults over 65 with high-risk medical issues. Next are essential workers, including police officers and firefighters. On Tuesday, NYPD Commissioner Dermot Shea announced that the department won’t require officers to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Officers will be given access to the vaccine later this month or early January.
In an interview, retired NYPD officer and spokesman for the Black Law Enforcement Alliance Marquez Claxton said some officers are hesitant about taking the vaccine based on his experience and conversations he’s had.
“There’s some reluctance and concern by the Black officers I’ve spoken to about taking this shot,” Claxton said. “They don’t trust the current administration. There are some concerns about the rushed procedures. In spite of all the assurances we’ve been given, there’s still some distrust of vaccinations by Black folk because of the historical situations. Their reluctance is not because they are police but because they are Black.”
As the vaccine begins to roll out, one of the chief concerns is side effects. According to the Center for Disease Control, side effects from the COVID-19 vaccine include fever chills, tiredness, headache, muscle pain and joint pain.
Reports indicate that seven people in COVID-19 vaccine trials developed Bell’s palsy, a temporary paralysis of the face. Recovery from the condition could take weeks. This week, the Food and Drug Administration recommended monitoring vaccine recipients for Bell’s palsy.
Dean and professor at SUNY’s Downstate Health Sciences University Dr. Kitaw Dimissie said that side effects for the vaccine are minimal.
“There are local side effects including pain at the injection site and also redness and swelling,” he said. “Severe pain on the injection site was reported in less than 1% of the cases. There are systemic side effects including fatigue, headache, fever and swollen lymph nodes have also been reported. The percentage of people who develop systemic side effects are very small.”
The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine is a step closer to getting back to some type of normalcy. That includes getting people back to work and bringing the millions of Americans who have been working from home back to the office.
But can an employer mandate workers to take that vaccine? Legal experts say employers can; however, employees can opt out based on health and religious reasons. A Gallup poll taken in August found that 35% of Americans would not get a free, FDA-approved vaccine.
Employees can be exempt from taking the COVID-19 vaccine under the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects workers from taking the vaccine due to a medical condition. Workers also have the right under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to opt out of the vaccine for religious reasons.