Only half of Fresno County health care workers want COVID vaccine. Why isn’t it more?
Only about half of Fresno County’s 58,000 health care workers have asked to be given a COVID-19 vaccine, according to health officials.
The county has received 44,000 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines through Tuesday. About 47% have been distributed to clinics and other health care facilities, according to Joe Prado, the county’s community health division manager.
In terms of why only about half of Fresno County heath care workers who’ve been asked have accepted the offer to get vaccinated, Prado said a common hesitation was related to the vaccine being rushed.
Fresno County has reported 69,871 positive COVID-19 patients through Tuesday, 553 more than the previous day.
Fresno County has 686 patients hospitalized for COVID-19 reasons — 23 more than the previous day — which tops the previous high of 677 on Dec. 28. There are 11 intensive care unit beds staffed and available.
Prado said the county is still working on developing a system to track how many people have gotten the shot, but that is likely at least another week away because it relies on delayed reporting from the state.
He stressed the importance of the vaccines. “When you sign up for an appointment, be very intentional in that,” he said during a briefing with reporters. “We don’t want one dose to go to waste.”
Fresno County interim Health Officer Rais Vohra said those “sophisticated consumers” are likely waiting to see what the vaccine does to those who take it, noting the second shot has been the one to exhibit more side effects.
Vohra stressed those side effects are statistically rare and have been recorded as mild. He said he’s planning himself to get his second dose this week without delay.
Many health workers may be waiting to see if they need to take a day off or otherwise prepare for a second dose, Vohra said.
“I don’t think everyone will need to do that, having read about those trials and seen those side effects,” Vohra said. “You may need to take a Tylenol or ibuprofen to feel better, and most people won’t even require that.”
State cases and deaths surge
California continues to brace for a post-holiday reckoning and what health officials hope will be the state’s last major surge of the coronavirus pandemic, with hospitals already buckling under floods of virus patients and the vaccine rollout proceeding sluggishly.
Early in 2021, the state’s baselines for COVID-19 activity remain at or near their highest points of the 10-month health crisis. The fear among health leaders is that the combination of Christmas and New Year’s celebrations will drive already astronomical high numbers even higher by about the middle of January.
Cases have poured in at an average of over 37,000 a day, which is more than a quarter-million every week, since the calendar officially flipped over to winter. At the start of November, the daily case rate was about 4,300.
COVID-19 deaths in the past two weeks have come at a rate of 291 per day, nearly quadrupling the average of 73 reported one month earlier.
