FIRST REFUSERS
Anger as most firefighters, MTA workers say they’ll shun the COVID vaccine
More than half of city firefighters say they won’t get the COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available in the next few weeks, and 70 percent of NYC transit workers won’t, or are hesitant, to take the potentially lifesaving shot, two recent surveys revealed. The anti-vax sentiment led one alarmed FDNY member to observe: “They’re called the Bravest, not the Smartest.”
More than half of New York City firefighters say they won’t be vaccinated for COVID-19 when the shot becomes available to first responders in a matter of weeks, a new internal survey has found.
About 55 percent of 2,053 FDNY firefighters polled over the last three days by their union, the Uniformed Firefighters Association, answered “no” when asked, “Will you get the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer when the department makes it available?” UFA President Andy Ansbro told The Post.
The responses account for about 25 percent of the UFA’s 8,200 active members.
The finding follows an August survey of 645 MTA workers that revealed that only 30 percent were definitely willing to be vaccinated. Thirty-eight percent were unsure and 32 percent said they would not take the vaccine, according to the poll of Transport Workers Union members conducted by the NYU School of Global Public Health.
If the survey results become the reality, it would mean thousands of the city’s first responders and other essential workers would remain potential spreaders even after vaccine is made available to them.
The city reported that positive coronavirus test results have doubled in the past month. Among firefighters, the number of positive tests have nearly tripled during that time, with more than 130 cases in the ranks as of Friday and six firehouses with three or more cases, an FDNY source said.
But many firefighters in their 30s and 40s have become less fearful of infection as they themselves have overcome the virus or know of colleagues who have, Ansbro said.
“A lot of them probably feel they are not in a risk category. They are younger, stronger. They may have already had it and gotten through it and feel it’s not their problem,” Ansbro said.
EMS workers have also been vocal about their vaccine skepticism, according to Oren Barzilay, president of the Uniformed EMTs,
Paramedics and Fire Inspectors union.
“A few are anxious to get it, but there have been a few dozen responses saying, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’ ” Barzilay said, citing online chatter about a potential vaccine.
“I personally am going to wait and see what the side effects are, what the independent studies show,” Barzilay said.
A veteran FDNY member expressed frustration with the doubters and believes first responders getting vaccinated is a publichealth necessity.
“The 55 percent doesn’t surprise me. They’re called the Bravest, not the Smartest,” the source said.
“It’s saving their lives and the lives of their co-workers, families, friends and the people they take care of . . . The last thing you want is . . . being worked on by an unvaccinated firefighter.”
Some policy experts say mandatory vaccines are the best way to protect the public.
“It may become necessary to require that certain individuals or communities be vaccinated, such as health-care workers and students, to protect the public’s health,” Mary Beth Morrissey, a research fellow at Fordham University and chair of the state Bar Association’s COVID-19 task force, said of a recent resolution calling on the state to consider mandating a vaccine.
The leading potential coronavirus vaccines have been touted as safe and 95 percent by their manufacturers.
Of the reluctant transit workers, the NYU poll’s researchers reported that “the main reason for not taking it . . . was the lack of trust in its safety.”
Respondents said their “main sources of trusted, reliable information” included personal health-care providers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Gov. Cuomo and the Transport Workers Union leadership, the researchers wrote.
But, the researchers added, “a sizeable portion said they no longer trust anyone.”
Among essential workers, levels of mistrust can be high, said Rachael Piltch-Loeb, a public-health expert who worked on the TWUstudy.
“There’s been a lot of misinformation, a lot of mistrust in government messaging, how the pandemic’s been handled, and a lot of distaste among certain essential workers how they really were not prioritized to receive PPE,” she said.
Some city teachers also are pushing back on the vaccine. A group called NY Teachers for Choice has collected nearly 10,000 signatures on a Change.org petition to oppose mandatory vaccines for teachers.
NYC Health + Hospitals, which operates the city’s hospitals and health clinics, is preparing to distribute the vaccine “as soon as it becomes available” but will not mandate workers at its 11 public hospitals take it.
The Police Benevolent Association, which represents 40,000 rank-and-file NYPD officers, said it is encouraging the city to distribute the vaccine to cops as soon as possible but letting them take it on a voluntary basis.
The state expects to receive 170,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Dec. 15, pending emergency approval from the federal Food and Drug Administration.