Group facilities’ vax evaders

Nearly 40 percent of the workers at group homes for the developmentally disabled in New York have refused to get vaccinated against COVID-19 — even as a Cuomo administration policy has directed the facilities to accept people with the coronavirus.

Meanwhile, one upstate group home was locked down this week and all social activities were canceled there after a worker tested positive for the disease, according to the mother of a resident.

In an e-mail to state officials, the mom fumed that her autistic son and other residents “are fully aware that they have been vaccinated and do not understand why they are being punished because a staff who refused the vaccine now has COVID.”

Stats from the state Office of People with Developmental Disabilities show 77 percent of group home residents have gotten at least one dose of vaccine, but just 24.5 percent of workers have done so.

Only 10 percent of residents have refused vaccination, while 39 percent of workers have refused. The remaining workers had “neither received nor declined the vaccine.”

The OPWDD blamed the low inoculation rate on “vaccine hesitancy” and staffers who “decide to wait for others to go first” and said it was working with unions and staffers to ensure they are “educated” on the vaccines’ benefits.

The agency issued an April 10 memo saying group homes could not deny admission to anyone with COVID-19 unless they were “unable to provide the level of care required.”