Connect with us

Health

Hospital Workers Turn Down COVID Vaccine: “There’s Too Much Mistrust”

“People are genuinely afraid of the vaccine.”

Published

on

Image Credit: Tim Reckmann/Flickr

Less than a week after we reported on widespread resistance among healthcare workers in one Chicago hospital, BeckersHospitalReview.com’s Ayla Ellison reports that the virus of vaccine mistrust is spreading

Many employees at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., have reservations about taking the COVID-19 vaccine, and CEO Anita Jenkins is trying to get workers to follow her lead by getting vaccinated, according to CNN

The hospital, a major healthcare provider for the Black community, received 725 doses of the Pfizer vaccine Dec. 15 and expects to receive a second shipment this week. As of Dec. 18, only about 600 of the hospital’s 1,900 employees had signed up for the shots, according to Kaiser Health News

“There is a high level of mistrust and I get it,” Ms. Jenkins told Kaiser Health News.

“People are genuinely afraid of the vaccine.”

The vaccination numbers, though low, still exceeded expectations, Ms. Jenkins told CNN. An internal hospital survey of about 350 employees in early November showed that 70 percent were not willing to take the COVID-19 vaccine or would not take it immediately after it became available. 

Ms. Jenkins received the shot Dec. 15 in hopes of inspiring staff to get vaccinated. She’s part of a widespread effort by healthcare experts and community leaders to combat vaccine hesitancy among Black Americans. About 35 percent of Black Americans said they probably or definitely would not get the vaccine if it was determined to be safe by scientists and widely available for free, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study cited by CNN

Howard University Hospital isn’t the only healthcare provider with workers who turned down the vaccine.

At Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburg, Texas, so many workers declined the COVID-19 vaccine that the hospital offered doses to other medical workers in the region, according to ProPublica.

The hospital received 5,850 doses of the vaccine, and it quickly became clear that not enough people eligible for the vaccine, like staff who work directly with COVID-19 patients, were opting to get it, DHR Health CMO Robert Martinez, MD, told ProPublica.

“You start to see similar numbers across the country, all this mistrust and misinformation,” Dr. Martinez said.

After the first day of distribution, DHR reached out to other hospitals and healthcare facilities in the region to offer doses of the vaccine. ProPublica reported that the vaccine ended up going to non-medical personnel as well, including state Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr. He told ProPublica he was invited to take the vaccine by DHR after officials explained to him that all eligible workers who wanted the vaccine received it. 

In short, as we noted previously, nobody wants to be a guinea pig.

Continue Reading
Comments

Health

FDA Committee Members Reviewing Pfizer Vaccine For Children Have Worked For Pfizer, Have Big Pfizer Connections

“The industry defends the attempts to influence committee members as simply efforts to best present their case”

Published

on

Image Credit: Kojach/Flickr

The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is holding a virtual meeting Tuesday October 26 to discuss authorizing a Pfizer-BioNTech Coronavirus vaccine for children between the ages of 5 to 11 years old.

This committee has a lot of sway with the FDA and their findings will be relevant, considering the Biden administration is getting ready to ship vaccines to elementary schools and California has already mandated the vaccine for schoolchildren pending federal authorization.

But the meeting roster shows that numerous members of the committee and temporary voting members have worked for Pfizer or have major connections to Pfizer.

Members include a former vice president of Pfizer Vaccines, a recent Pfizer consultant, a recent Pfizer research grant recipient, a man who mentored a current top Pfizer vaccine executive, a man who runs a center that gives out Pfizer vaccines, the chair of a Pfizer data group, a guy who was proudly photographed taking a Pfizer vaccine, and numerous people who are already on the record supporting Coronavirus vaccines for children. Meanwhile, recent FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is on Pfizer’s board of directors.

HERE’S THE MEETING ROSTER: Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee October 26, 2021 Meeting Draft Roster.

Acting Chair Arnold S. Monto was a paid Pfizer consultant as recently as 2018.

Steven Pergam got the Pfizer vaccine: Building trust in safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines (fredhutch.org)

Committee member Archana Chatterjee worked on a research project related to vaccines for infants between 2018-2020, and the research project was sponsored by Pfizer.

Myron Levine has mentored some U.S. post-doctoral fellows, and one of his proteges happens to be Raphael Simon, the senior director of vaccine research and development at Pfizer.

James Hildreth, temporary voting member, made a financial interest disclosure for this meeting in which he disclosed more than $1.5 million in relevant financial interests, including his work as president of Meharry Medical College, which administers Pfizer Coronavirus vaccines.

Geeta K. Swamy is listed as the chair of the “Independent Data Monitoring Committee for the Pfizer Group B Streptococcus Vaccine Program,” a committee sponsored by Pfizer. Duke University states that “Dr. Swamy serves as a co-investigator for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine trial.”

Gregg Sylvester previously served as a vice president for Pfizer Vaccines, where he launched Pfizer vaccines including one for children.

Among the meeting’s “temporary voting members,” Ofer Levy, Boston Children’s Hospital, is for the Pfizer vaccine for children, Eric Rubin is pro-vaccine for children, Jay Portnoy supports authorizing Coronavirus vaccines for kids, and Melinda Wharton complained over the summer about how orders for the CDC’s “Vaccines For Children” program dropped.

FDANews stated last December: “FDA advisory committee members in the past have frequently been the target of heavy politicking by industry representatives of whatever drug they were considering for a recommendation at in-person meetings. That process has been somewhat altered by the fact that during COVID-19, meetings are being held virtually. But it’s likely that behind-the-scenes pressuring still goes on. The industry defends the attempts to influence committee members as simply efforts to best present their case.”

Continue Reading

Health

FDA Panel Backs Pfizer Shot For Kids: “We’re Never Going to Learn About How Safe This Vaccine Is Unless We Start Giving It”

The same FDA panel approved the rollout of boosters earlier this month based off “gut feeling” rather than data.

Published

on

An FDA vaccine advisory panel on Tuesday voted unanimously 17-0 in favor shooting up kids aged 5-11 with Pfizer’s experimental mRNA injection with panelist Dr Eric Rubin stating, “we’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it.”

https://twitter.com/Techno_Fog/status/1453095851824459776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

Full context:

“We’re never going to learn about how safe this vaccine is unless we start giving it,” Dr Rubin said, urging other panelists to vote for it. “That’s just the way it goes.”

The panel voted in favor of experimenting on tens of millions of helpless children with zero long-term data on side effects because 94 children between 5 and 11 have died with COVID-19 (they claimed “of”) and “all have names. All of them had mothers,” to quote the emotional gobbledegook uttered by panelist Patrick S. Moore.

From The Washington Post:

“To me, it seems that it is a hard decision but a clear one,” said Patrick S. Moore, a University of Pittsburgh microbiologist and committee member. He noted that 94 children between 5 and 11 have died of covid-19, and “all have names. All of them had mothers.”

The same FDA panel approved the rollout of boosters earlier this month based off “gut feeling” rather than data.

As the WSJ reported:

Members of the FDA’s vaccine-advisory panel supported Moderna’s booster dose even though the evidence for it was from a small study and had mixed results.

“It’s more a gut feeling rather than based on really truly serious data,” said Patrick Moore, a member of the committee and a professor of molecular genetics and biochemistry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. “The data itself is not strong, but it is certainly going in the direction that is supportive of this vote.”

This is how they “follow the science.”

Continue Reading

Health

Governor takes over state’s PRIVATE businesses, mandates vaccines for all

‘His message was crystal clear, obey or lose your job’

Published

on

The governor of Washington has begun a process that could result in a statewide mandate for all workers to accept the experimental COVID-19 shots in order to be able to get a paycheck.

Across America already, universities, schools and hospitals have COVID vaccination mandates – even though as experimental treatments those actions remain under court challenge in many cases.

President Biden also has ordered the vaccinations for federal workers and the military. And companies with more than 100 employees.

But now Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee in Washington has moved the agenda even further.

A report at the PostMillennial explains under Inslee, the Washington Department of Labor and Industries has proposed an emergency package of rules addressing the “emergency powers” given Inslee to respond to COVID-19.

“This package, which is an extension of current mandates, grants Inslee the ability to enforce COVID vaccine mandates on all private businesses in the state of Washington, according to elected officials,” the report said.

It was a statement from Republicans Jim Walsh and Jesse Young of the legislature that revealed the actions.

“This mandate from L&I demonstrates a complete lack of transparency, which dilutes public trust in our government and fails to show the agency’s good faith in promulgating the rule. The reality is this move by L&I is a blank check for the agency to enforce any of the governor’s mandates or edicts on private employers,” they wrote.

They explained if the state agency wants such a rule, officials should request it in “an open and transparent manner that allows public review and comment.”

“Even if an opportunity for review and comment is not afforded the public, L&I’s website should host the proposed rulemaking to grant easy access to the public,” they said.

They also warned about arbitrary enforcement because of the proposal’s vagueness.

“There is no clear case for ‘good cause’ or ‘the preservation of the public health, safety, or general welfare’ as the governor’s proclamation already addresses these issues, making L&I’s mandate arbitrary and capricious,” they said. “We call on the governor to immediately repeal this mandate. If L&I wants to push this policy, it needs to go through the proper channels and work with the Legislature.”

The report explained Inslee’s recent vaccine mandate was unlike others in that it provided no opt-out for testing instead.

“His message was crystal clear, obey or lose your job,” the report said. “Despite mass protests across the state with thousands of state workers in attendance, Inslee followed through on his orders and terminated thousands that decided not to comply.”

The report warned, “If Inslee follows through on L&I’s emergency rulemaking package, all businesses and employees in the state of Washington will be subjected to submitting proof of vaccination as a condition of employment.”

Real Clear Policy earlier explained that Americans simply don’t like Biden’s orders and mandates.

The article pointed out that health authorities have openly misled the public, including top medical adviser Anthony Fauci’s multiple flip-flops on COVID issues.

He deceived the public, for example, by saying the public didn’t need to wear masks, then again when commenting about “herd immunity.”

Continue Reading