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Healthcare workers were the first nationwide to receive the COVID-19 vaccine this week, but a doctor at Houston Memorial Medical Center said Wednesday that half of the nurses in his unit don’t want it, calling it a “toy. politician”.
“Yesterday I had one, not a fight, but I had a friendly discussion with more than 50 percent of my nurses, in my unit, telling me they would not get the vaccine,” Dr. Joseph Varon told NPR’s Steve Inskeep on Wednesday.
“Of course, I pushed forward the concept that people should get vaccinated and asked, ‘why not?’ And, you know, at the end of the day, like I said before, the coronavirus has become a political toy, and most of the reasons that most of my people don’t want to get vaccinated are politically motivated. “
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Varon said he and his staff will have access to the vaccine next week. Despite some misgivings, he said others are “very happy” and “actually a bit upset” that they didn’t get the first round of vaccination.
The first shipments of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine contained about three million doses, with many more to arrive in the coming weeks and months.
Nurse Kayla Mitchell is the first person in Maine to receive the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech. He works in the COVID intensive care unit at Maine Medical Center. (Charlie Berg Medical Center / Maine via AP)
About 27% of those who participated in a Kaiser Family Foundation survey released Tuesday said they probably or definitely will not get the COVID-19 vaccine, even if it is free and considered safe.
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The number of Americans who said they will likely or definitely get it when it is available now is 71%, an increase from 63% in September.
The first shipment of COVID-19 vaccines begins distribution just as the US reaches 16,716,777 confirmed cases and 303,773 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told “Fox & Friends” on Wednesday that 20 million Americans should receive the vaccine by the end of this year, 50 million by the end of January and 100 million vaccines will be administered by the end of February.
Despite the promise of the vaccine, Varon of the Houston Memorial warned people not to become complacent.
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“I really think the next six weeks are probably going to be the darkest weeks Houston has ever had. We need people to keep fighting,” he told NPR.
“My main concern is that, again, they think the vaccine will fix it and fix it quickly. No, the vaccine will work, but it will take time. It will be months and more months, and probably even years before everyone gets vaccinated. And then we will have control over this pandemic. “
Associated Press contributed to this report.
