Between A Quarter And A Third Of Health Care Workers Have Refused The COVID Vaccine

Yuly Mosca, a registered nurse, poses for a photo in Cambridge, Mass. on February 3, 2020. Mosca works at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) PACE, a program that provides home care for older patients – including those with COVID-19 – who would otherwise be in nursing homes. (Meredith Nierman/GBH News)

When Yuly Mosca got an email about the COVID-19 vaccine being available, she signed up for an appointment. She is a registered nurse at Cambridge Health Alliance (CHA) PACE, a program that provides home care for older patients — including those with COVID-19 — who would otherwise be in nursing homes. However, when Mosca got a follow up email with the exact time of her vaccine appointment, she was hesitant.

“I was like, ‘Well, I’m not that ready to get it, like, right away,’ ” Mosca said, remembering that her head buzzed with reasons not to get the shot.

First, she said, “we don’t know the long-term side effects of it.”

Second, Mosca added, “I don’t want to be the first one to get it.”

Third, even after months of taking care of COVID patients, she still hadn’t gotten sick.

“I don’t think I need it,” Mosca recalled thinking in mid-December, as the very first COVID vaccines were being given in Massachusetts.

So, Mosca decided to cancel her appointment. And she is not alone. Healthcare workers were the first people to be eligible for the vaccine in Massachusetts, but a significant percentage of them opted against getting it.

Several local medical systems — from long-term care facilities to hospitals — told GBH News that somewhere between a quarter and a third of their employees decided not to get the shot. This is consistent with finding from a recent survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Read the rest of the story at GBH’s website.