Overcoming LTC home vaccine wariness

Health officials in Ontario thought large, central clinics would be the most efficient way to get staff at longterm care homes vaccinated quickly, protecting elderly residents most at risk of severe COVID-19 and death.

As it became clear that some staff could or would not travel to hospitals in large cities, wary of the health-care system or of the vaccines, officials have turned to new strategies, like bringing the shots directly to care homes.

Improving the vaccination rate among staff at longterm care homes is critical to limiting further deaths and outbreaks in these facilities, where experts recently forecast another 1,520 residents could die by Feb. 14, under worst-case conditions.

More than 3,000 LTC residents — 58 per cent of Ontario’s overall COVID-19 deaths — and 10 workers have died from the virus. Outbreaks left some homes struggling to provide basic care like feeding, according to testimony to a provincial commission.

“They’re fearful and they’re angry, and they’re feeling sacrificed,” Amit Arya, a palliative care doctor, said of LTC staff.

Vaccine hesitancy among care home workers also underscores the risk of relying heavily on large, centralized vaccination centres in other hard-hit communities.

“It won’t work for every population,” said Brian Hodges, chief medical officer at university Health Network, which has mobile teams vaccinating care home residents and staff. Among LTC staff, who could bring the virus into these homes, between 25 and 85 per cent have been vaccinated, Hodges said.

Vaccine hesitancy is not limited to care home workers. Only about half of Canadians say they are willing to be inoculated as soon as possible, according to a recent poll from Angus reid.

krishana Sankar, a program manager at COVID-19 resources Canada — an alliance of scientists and experts — said misinformation is spreading on messaging apps. Her organization is running daily Zoom calls during which LTC staff can ask experts about vaccines.

“A lot of people have concerns around the vaccines,” she said. “Once we started answering questions around that, a lot of people seemed far more at ease.”