Why Healthcare Workers Refuse the Vaccine

the country from other nations. That's in an effort to help airlines regain at least some of their most lucrative international travel. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday said it approved the new anti pandemic measure that will take effect on January. It requires travelers to receive a test within three days before leaving for the US

and provide written documentation of a negative result. Japan extended its state of emergency beyond the Tokyo region, encompassing an area that accounts for more than half of its economy. It's one of several countries where the virus has made a comeback in winter months. Tokyo cases hit a record last Thursday. The situation has revived questions about whether it's safe to hold even a limited version of the postponed

Olympics in less than two hundred days. Finally, Sweden is tightening the screws after taking arguably the world's off this approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic. Under a new law that runs through September, the government can now find or close businesses that fail to follow restrictions like visitor caps. It's a departure from relying mainly on recommendations and trusting

people to follow them. With the health care system under increasing to rest and death surging, some say it was too little, too late, and now for today's main story, most states have prioritized healthcare workers in their vaccination programs, but across the country, vaccine providers are finding that some of those workers don't want the shot. Nurses and firefighters are among those questioning it's safety after approval in record time.

I spoke with reporter ALICEI. Young, who reports that reluctance to get the shot that could end the pandemic goes well beyond anti vax activists who's about unproven theories on social media. The reluctance of some healthcare workers to receive a COVID nineteen vaccine may be surprising too many listeners. What have been some of the reasons that they've given

as to why they're unwilling to take it. Some medical professionals are saying that they support vaccines, They support measles vaccines and uh the annual flu shot, but they say that they're leery of the science behind this one because the COVID nineteen vaccinations were developed in such a short amount of time. It can take about a decade or more for a typical vaccine to go from research to market. They're also afraid that it hasn't been tested long term.

They're worried about if they have pre existing conditions or if they have um an immune disorder that causes their immune system to just blow up. Now, I'd like to dig into some of these things that you've just mentioned in terms of the development of these vaccines and even perhaps some of the technology that these vaccines utilize, because it seems that some have cited the technology behind the MODERNA vaccine and the Fiser vaccine the m RNA technology

as some of the causes of their suspicions. I mean, what, what's the rationale there? Well, in a typical vaccine, what you're using is a dead piece of the virus or a very small amount of active virus. With the m RNA, it actually goes into the body and causes a change, a brief change. And folks who object to that say, this technology is just two untested and once you put this thing in your body, there's no knowing what it can do. And they believe this, you know, with reason

or without reason, it's what they believe. You know, these vaccines were developed at a remarkably fast pace, um the fastest ever really, but you know, given that Fiser and Moderna and and certainly other companies working on vaccines have attempted to provide some sort of guarantees or safeguards that might help ensure that consumers feel that these vaccines are safe.

And so I was wondering if you might unpack what types of either testing was conducted before the vaccines were approved, or some of the other methods that these companies took to try and alleviate these fears. There's a lot of misinformation. They're about the vaccines. One person we interviewed said, well, it was never tested on mice, and vaccines are tested on mice for a reason. In fact, the pharmaceuticals tested the components not only on mice, but also monkeys and

more than seventy five thousand human beings. And when we're talking about the medical professionals, as you say, who are unwilling or have expressed a reluctance to take this vaccine, I mean, what specifically group of folks are we talking about here. Are we talking about nurses, physicians, or are we talking about kind of a broader definition of medical professionals.

I have a sprinkling of physicians who uh, myself and my colleagues spoke to UM and they say, one said, there's no need for the vaccine at all, that there are over the counter drugs that they've been happy with

to treat the virus when it does pop up. One operator of a nursing home Pruitt Health, which is one of the nation's largest family operated nursing home Change, told me that it's it's a lot of medical assistance, the certified UH nursing assistance, who are saying, now, uh, these folks tend to not be college educated, they're working for low pay, long hours. Some have said they are African American,

and they are skeptical of what this drug contains. UM. They point to the test keg Uh syphilis experiment UM as a reason for their mistrust. Now, is there any kind of data available in terms of, say, the percentage or proportion of medical professionals or healthcare workers who aren't willing to be vaccinated. I haven't found any reliable data that show how many medical professionals want nothing to do with this, And I think that's for a couple of reasons. Um,

we're so busy surveying the general population. Number one and sixty of the general population says that they wanted Among the professionals who are saying no, Also, they don't want their names necessarily linked to this in print or anywhere else, for fear of UM being made an example of, or maybe for fear of losing their jobs. Now in the vaccine rollout, UM, certainly there have been these attempts, as we've already discussed, to you know, showcase the solid science

behind the vaccines, the safety behind the vaccines. But in terms of perhaps encouraging these healthcare professionals or medical professionals to receive the vaccine. Are there any types of incentives that organizations, or even say the CDC has done to

try and encourage this particular group to receive the vaccine? Remember, the federal government left vaccinations to the states to sort out, and now states are kind of wringing their hands pulling out their hair with this effort, although most of them

say that they're starting to get it under control. The federal government has suggested for employees, say of a nursing home, who are saying no thank you, to hold a pizza party or offer some kind of raffle incentive to get folks more interested in this, which is to me, is kind of an interesting approach when you're talking about something serious, something so serious, to say, hey, maybe a pizza party

will help. On that note, on more of the say risk issue, Can a medical professional be fired for refusing to be vaccinated? Yes, a medical professional can be fired, But there's a couple of components to this. Workers can cite a disability or a religious belief, and that brings us into the reasonable accommodation territory. So in this case you would have to say I object to this because I have a disability and it's going to be made worse.

So then your employer needs to turn around and said, okay, well can you work from home or can you mask constantly and take other steps? And this is where it can get harry in court in the US Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals took the case of an employee. She was a medical employ who said no to a rebella vaccine that was required by her employer. She was dismissed. She said that she had allergies and sensitivities and was

afraid of a reaction. So the court took a look at this and determined that what she had was quote garden variety allergies and basically they told her get lost. So that was a health her firing as a health I mean, do you think that going forward, you know, as vaccine roll out continues and ramps up, is there more that can be done to shore up confidence either amongst these healthcare professionals or even amongst the general population

that these vaccines are indeed safe. I don't know about medical professionals, although some have said they're just taking a weight and see attitude that they're not necessarily constitutionally against the COVID nineteen vaccine. They say that they don't want to be the guinea pigs, So the wait a couple of weeks or a couple of months, um see if there's any widespread reported problems so far as your basic

folks who don't want anything to do with it. It was suggested to me by an immunization professional yesterday that it can't be overstated how important that your local pastors or even your local sports heroes, maybe not like your NFL guy or your NBA guy or your women's soccer professional, but people in the community whom people look up to for them to get out and say, look, I took it and I'm okay, and you should too. That was a lease, young, And that's it for our show today.

For coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by top for foreheads Magnus Hendrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Elise Young. Original music by Leo sidrin. Our editors are Rick Shine

and Francesca Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.