Most Nurses Are Vaccinated - So Why Do People Think Health Workers Are Vaccine Hesitant?
- The Guardian, Sept. 9, 2021.
Charlaine was skeptical of the vaccines at first. She wondered how they were created so quickly, and she was wary of the long history of medical experimentation and disregard for Black people like her in the United States. But then Charlaine, a nurse in a neonatal intensive care unit, thought about the disparate health outcomes for people of color in the pandemic – and knew that she might not receive the same level of care as others if she got sick.
She did her research and determined that the mRNA vaccines, which became available to health workers late last year, are safe and effective. Charlaine, who asked to use only her first name to protect her job, got her vaccine in January. “Here we have this virus that is killing, maiming, debilitating people, and I knew that if I was in a position of being sick, I would be treated differently and probably not survive. So that was one layer of protection that I wanted to give myself,” she said.
A year and a half into the pandemic, healthcare workers are exhausted, burned out and worried that the worst is far from over. Amid that stress, much attention has been focused on nurses who haven’t received the vaccine, even though the majority of these essential workers have been inoculated. That has left many nurses feeling betrayed, both by their unvaccinated patients and by public perception.
“It’s a major source of frustration for nurses right now that people aren’t getting vaccinated,” said Anna Maria Valdez, a professor of nursing at Sonoma State University. “It’s like we have a big fire, but we also have big hoses to put it out – but people aren’t using them; they’re standing there, watching the fire burn.” But Laura Denstman, a nurse in Maryland, also worries that the amplification of fringe views makes it seem like health workers don’t trust the vaccines – which is far from the truth, she said. “One report of a nurse refusing to be vaccinated and all of a sudden it’s ‘a majority’ of nurses,” she said. “And sure, that scares the public.”
Charlaine wishes more news stories would focus on the millions of health workers who have been vaccinated and have “saved lives by not infecting others,” ...
- More,
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/most-nurses-are-vaccinated-%e2%80%93-so-why-do-people-think-health-workers-are-vaccine-hesitant/ar-AAOfBWg
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- Nurse Laura Weiss created the "Light of Appreciation" to honor her fellow nurses who helped inoculate 82% of the population in Boulder, Colo.
- A Nurse Is Bringing Light To A Dark Time With A Chandelier Made Up Of Vaccine Vials, NPR
https://democraticunderground.com/1016301322
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