Less than half of KY nursing home staffers have opted to take the COVID-19 vaccine
Less than half of the staff members at Kentucky long-term care facilities have been vaccinated for COVID-19 nearly two months after doses first became available, another bump in the road to slowing the virus in a setting where it is often deadly.
An estimated 45 percent of long-term care staff have received the vaccine, compared to an estimated 73 percent of long-term care residents.
As of February 1, a total of 68,254 doses of the vaccine have been administered in Kentucky nursing homes, 26,321 of which went to staff. At least 8,412 staff members have received both doses of the vaccine.
Vaccinating residents and staff at long-term care facilities, which account for more than 55 percent of Kentucky’s nearly 4,000 COVID-19 deaths, is among the highest priority for public health experts. But the program — which Gov. Andy Beshear has been quick to point out is run by the federal government, not the state — has been slow to distribute the vaccine.
The high opt-out rate among staff, which matches a trend nationally, could be part of the reason why.
“It’s not for lack of trying,” said Betsy Johnson, an industry lobbyist and director of the Kentucky Association for Health Care Facilities and the Kentucky Center for Assisted Living.
Trying to convince staff to be immunized “is a day-to-day struggle with day-to-day goal setting,” she said, noting that distrust of government and misinformation are hampering their efforts. “We are doing everything in our power to get the word out.”
As Beshear and Kentucky Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack have noted in recent weeks, some staff and residents at these facilities are choosing to sign up for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine when it’s offered again.
“It was what I would call a soft, not a hard, no,” Beshear said last week. “It wasn’t that they didn’t want to take it, it’s that they felt that maybe it had been rushed, they had concerns about its efficacy and as they saw other people getting it, they now want it.”
Trying to coordinate those later first doses is only becoming more complicated, Johnson said.
CVS Health and Walgreens were contracted by the federal government to provide three vaccine clinics at long-term care facilities. The third, which is happening now across different facilities, was meant as more of a wrap up to offer second doses to any stragglers.
But staff who turned down a dose the first two times have had trouble getting it on the third visit. Both pharmacies initially refused to dole out first doses at their final clinic, in part because contractual limitations prevented them from administering a second dose in three or four weeks, Johnson said.
After meeting with the Cabinet for Health and Family Services this week to iron out logistics, CVS and Walgreens have now been “instructed” that they must provide a first dose if a staff member or resident wants one as long as the facility has a plan for how those people will get a second dose — a responsibility that will likely fall to the local health department, Johnson said.
Johnson couldn’t say how many staff members were now requesting an initial dose, weeks after they were first offered one, but she said “it’s enough to be a concern.”
Beshear’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but the governor has said he regrets partnering with the federal government for the long-term care program.
“If I could go back in time, we would have administered the long-term care program on our own through community pharmacies and others,” he said. “With the contractual relationship with the federal government, we’ve had less control.”
While the death rate among long-term care staff has been much lower than that of residents, more than 12,500 staff members have contracted the coronavirus since March, which is 3 percent of the state’s total COVID-19 cases.
Beshear has said the virus is slowing in long-term care facilities, but already there have been a total of 5,111 cases in 2021 between residents and staff. At least 326 residents of long-term care facilities have died this year, according to the Kentucky Department for Public Health.
On Wednesday, Beshear said there were 729 active cases in the state’s nursing homes. In late December, there were five-times as many active cases among nursing home residents.
Lack of enthusiasm for the vaccine among nursing home workers contrasts starkly with enthusiasm from a large portion of the general public, which has been overwhelming the state’s regional vaccination centers with appointment requests. Beshear has repeatedly said the state does not have enough doses to meet the demand and delayed eligibility for the next group — which includes people older than 60 and all essential workers.
Those eligible to receive the vaccine now include health care workers, first responders, K-12 school personnel and anyone 70 or older. In response to an open records request from the Herald-Leader, the state said it does not have data on the percentage of K-12 employees who have been vaccinated.
Already, Stack has seized more than 12,000 doses from the long-term care vaccination program for use among the general public. The state has not said whether it will seize more.
This story was originally published February 5, 2021 at 4:45 PM.
