A few weeks ago, there was a huge uproar over vaccine mandates for all New York City employees. There was the uproar from those who were resistant to the vaccines, and then there was the outcry from those worried about how government services would deteriorate without a portion of the workforce around due to the mandates.
But there’s a different outcry that should happen, yet I don’t see happening.
There should be outcry over the fact that, across the United States, the government workers doing the least to protect themselves and others from the virus (at least in terms of getting vaccinated) are in many cases the ones who work with some of the most vulnerable populations.
I observed in one of my COVID update blog posts a few weeks ago that the government agencies with the lowest vaccine rates in my city at the time were many of the ones serving the most vulnerable populations; namely, agencies serving those in legal trouble (police), those in jail, those with fires, those who are homeless, and those who are in public housing. At the time, I bemoaned the fact that the media wasn’t picking up on this.
However, one thing even I didn’t pick up fully until another friend alerted me to this was that my observation about unvaccinated government workers in New York City was a microcosm of what we’ve been seeing nationwide. Throughout the United States, it is government employees who are working with many of the most vulnerable in society who are often also the most resistant to getting vaccinated. In Chicago, it was reported a few weeks into their own mandate that their police and fire departments had the lowest vaccination rates.[1] In numerous states, it’s been reported that prison inmates are getting vaccinated at higher rates than the corrections officers who work with them (with some states having extremely low vaccine rates among their corrections officers)![2] Vaccine resistance among government workers who work with the most vulnerable in our society is not just a New York City issue, but seemingly a nationwide one.
This is a fact that I find troubling, and a fact that I think a lot of us should find troubling as well. We want the people who serve the most vulnerable to do all they can to keep themselves and others healthy, and the science shows that getting a COVID vaccine is the best way to do that, plain and simple. So when those serving the most vulnerable decide, in many cases, not to get vaccinated, and in the process make themselves and others (particularly others these people interact with who are in vulnerable situations) more vulnerable to this virus, it is something that is extremely problematic. And I hear very little media coverage of this.
Even though it’s something media hasn’t covered, I hope this gets more attention, because once it gets more attention, it will hopefully lead to a more aggressive, sustained push in some municipalities for government workers to get vaccinated. It’s important for this to happen, for the sakes of those most vulnerable, and by extension, the entire society at large.
[1] https://www.chicagobusiness.com/government/chicago-police-vaccine-rate-lowest-among-city-departments
[2] https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2021/09/30/prison-inmates-more-vaccinated-than-corrections-staff-in-at-least-13-states/?sh=44cdc04e4ebb
Blind Injustice 
I weep at the anti-vacation movement. For those of us who applaud and line up for the vaccines, it’s simply impossible to understand. But there’s no denying it’s real. 😥
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Same here. What makes me particularly sad in this case is that it’s some of the people serving some of the most vulnerable who are resisting.
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I know. It’s impossible to comprehend. They do care about the people they serve, too.
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People think that it’s their bodies, their rights, to whether get vaccinated or not, but, it actually, isn’t, because of how quickly the pandemic is spreading now, the best way they can protect against contraction is through, vaccinations, and yet, they don’t do it, that is in a country, where the vaccines ate, plentiful, where we are, we don’t have the choices of choosing which vaccines we get, we take what we can get, despite the risks, because we don’t want to contract the virus, especially now, the mutated strains are here, vaccination is the only way, to protect our selves, and people in the U.S. still think that it’s their bodies, their rights to, get vaccinated or not, the vaccines should be mandatory, and the governments should enforce a fine, or ban those who aren’t fully vaccinated, from going out to dine, or to other public places, but that, I’m sure, will, cause a huge, riot, so…
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In a way, it is a choice, but it’s not the choice that people want or hope for–it’s get vaccinated or get slammed with severely symptomatic COVID in many, if not most, cases. That is the choice.
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It boggles my mind that people are willing to put vulnerable others at risk. If people choose not to get the vaccine, that’s their call, but the consequence of that should be that they can’t go to work at a job where they’re likely to put others’ lives at risk.
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Yep, and that is something that some municipalities are beginning to conclude–that if you’re going to put other vulnerable people at risk, then you’re on unpaid leave.
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Could it be that the majority of the police and fire service are Trumpist, conspiracy-theorist Republicans? If so then it stands to reason that they would resist ANY attempt to enforce vaccination upon themselves (as per taurusingemini, above … “their bodies, their rights”). And yet they still wear seatbelts whilst driving …
Yep, Trumpists … self-serving hypocrites!
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That could be a factor. But, at the same time, I’m not sure if workers at the city’s housing authority would fall into that group, either. So what you say may be true in some cases, but it may be bit more complex too.
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I am not an anti-vaccine type. Just opposed to vaccine mandates.
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Mandates already exist though for other diseases (at least with schooling, and in some other places)–chickenpox, polio, mumps, and measles, to name a few. Are you against those mandates as well?
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Brendan Birth, I am opposed to mandates, period. That does not mean that people cannot get in line and take any vaccines if they really want to. Just don’t come to my front door with needles and tell me that I have to take them if I don’t want to.
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So here’s the thing:
1. Vaccinated people have been significantly less likely to die than unvaccinated people.
2. Vaccine mandates have in all the cases I’m aware of resulted in vaccination rates increasing by a good amount.
3. Because of the increases in vaccination rates from the mandates, lives were likely saved.
It would be nice and ideal if a mandate weren’t needed, sure. But ultimately, the best course of action, to my way of thinking, is whatever saves the greatest number of lives possible and gives us the greatest chance of our hospitals not getting overwhelmed. Which in this case included some mandates.
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Brendan Birth, that is what the media wants us to think. None of it is true.
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With all due respect, it’s not just the media. It’s medical experts. It’s people serving on the front lines in hospitals. It’s health-related government agencies, in states run by both Democrats and Republicans. To think that this is just some media story is simply not true.
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Brendan Birth, just so there is no misunderstanding, I am not an anti-vaccine type person. I just want to see as much data as is available so a fully informed decision can be made.
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