Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day three d
Speaker 1: and five since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's
Speaker 1: main story healthcare workers are among the first prioritized to
Speaker 1: receive a vaccine, but some are refusing to get inoculated.
Speaker 1: We look at why vaccine reluctance extends even to those
Speaker 1: in the medical profession. But first, here's what happened in
Speaker 1: virus news today. The US will require proof of a
Speaker 1: negative COVID nineteen test before allowing visitors to fly into
Speaker 1: the country from other nations. That's in an effort to
Speaker 1: help airlines regain at least some of their most lucrative
Speaker 1: international travel. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on
Speaker 1: Tuesday said it approved the new anti pandemic measure that
Speaker 1: will take effect on January. It requires travelers to receive
Speaker 1: a test within three days before leaving for the US
Speaker 1: and provide written documentation of a negative result. Japan extended
Speaker 1: its state of emergency beyond the Tokyo region, encompassing an
Speaker 1: area that accounts for more than half of its economy.
Speaker 1: It's one of several countries where the virus has made
Speaker 1: a comeback in winter months. Tokyo cases hit a record
Speaker 1: last Thursday. The situation has revived questions about whether it's
Speaker 1: safe to hold even a limited version of the postponed
Speaker 1: Olympics in less than two hundred days. Finally, Sweden is
Speaker 1: tightening the screws after taking arguably the world's off this
Speaker 1: approach to handling the coronavirus pandemic. Under a new law
Speaker 1: that runs through September, the government can now find or
Speaker 1: close businesses that fail to follow restrictions like visitor caps.
Speaker 1: It's a departure from relying mainly on recommendations and trusting
Speaker 1: people to follow them. With the health care system under
Speaker 1: increasing to rest and death surging, some say it was
Speaker 1: too little, too late, and now for today's main story,
Speaker 1: most states have prioritized healthcare workers in their vaccination programs,
Speaker 1: but across the country, vaccine providers are finding that some
Speaker 1: of those workers don't want the shot. Nurses and firefighters
Speaker 1: are among those questioning it's safety after approval in record time.
Speaker 1: I spoke with reporter ALICEI. Young, who reports that reluctance
Speaker 1: to get the shot that could end the pandemic goes
Speaker 1: well beyond anti vax activists who's about unproven theories on
Speaker 1: social media. The reluctance of some healthcare workers to receive
Speaker 1: a COVID nineteen vaccine may be surprising too many listeners.
Speaker 1: What have been some of the reasons that they've given
Speaker 1: as to why they're unwilling to take it. Some medical
Speaker 1: professionals are saying that they support vaccines, They support measles
Speaker 1: vaccines and uh the annual flu shot, but they say
Speaker 1: that they're leery of the science behind this one because
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen vaccinations were developed in such a short
Speaker 1: amount of time. It can take about a decade or
Speaker 1: more for a typical vaccine to go from research to market.
Speaker 1: They're also afraid that it hasn't been tested long term.
Speaker 1: They're worried about if they have pre existing conditions or
Speaker 1: if they have um an immune disorder that causes their
Speaker 1: immune system to just blow up. Now, I'd like to
Speaker 1: dig into some of these things that you've just mentioned
Speaker 1: in terms of the development of these vaccines and even
Speaker 1: perhaps some of the technology that these vaccines utilize, because
Speaker 1: it seems that some have cited the technology behind the
Speaker 1: MODERNA vaccine and the Fiser vaccine the m RNA technology
Speaker 1: as some of the causes of their suspicions. I mean, what,
Speaker 1: what's the rationale there? Well, in a typical vaccine, what
Speaker 1: you're using is a dead piece of the virus or
Speaker 1: a very small amount of active virus. With the m RNA,
Speaker 1: it actually goes into the body and causes a change,
Speaker 1: a brief change. And folks who object to that say,
Speaker 1: this technology is just two untested and once you put
Speaker 1: this thing in your body, there's no knowing what it
Speaker 1: can do. And they believe this, you know, with reason
Speaker 1: or without reason, it's what they believe. You know, these
Speaker 1: vaccines were developed at a remarkably fast pace, um the
Speaker 1: fastest ever really, but you know, given that Fiser and
Speaker 1: Moderna and and certainly other companies working on vaccines have
Speaker 1: attempted to provide some sort of guarantees or safeguards that
Speaker 1: might help ensure that consumers feel that these vaccines are safe.
Speaker 1: And so I was wondering if you might unpack what
Speaker 1: types of either testing was conducted before the vaccines were approved,
Speaker 1: or some of the other methods that these companies took
Speaker 1: to try and alleviate these fears. There's a lot of misinformation.
Speaker 1: They're about the vaccines. One person we interviewed said, well,
Speaker 1: it was never tested on mice, and vaccines are tested
Speaker 1: on mice for a reason. In fact, the pharmaceuticals tested
Speaker 1: the components not only on mice, but also monkeys and
Speaker 1: more than seventy five thousand human beings. And when we're
Speaker 1: talking about the medical professionals, as you say, who are
Speaker 1: unwilling or have expressed a reluctance to take this vaccine,
Speaker 1: I mean, what specifically group of folks are we talking
Speaker 1: about here. Are we talking about nurses, physicians, or are
Speaker 1: we talking about kind of a broader definition of medical professionals.
Speaker 1: I have a sprinkling of physicians who uh, myself and
Speaker 1: my colleagues spoke to UM and they say, one said,
Speaker 1: there's no need for the vaccine at all, that there
Speaker 1: are over the counter drugs that they've been happy with
Speaker 1: to treat the virus when it does pop up. One
Speaker 1: operator of a nursing home Pruitt Health, which is one
Speaker 1: of the nation's largest family operated nursing home Change, told
Speaker 1: me that it's it's a lot of medical assistance, the
Speaker 1: certified UH nursing assistance, who are saying, now, uh, these
Speaker 1: folks tend to not be college educated, they're working for
Speaker 1: low pay, long hours. Some have said they are African American,
Speaker 1: and they are skeptical of what this drug contains. UM.
Speaker 1: They point to the test keg Uh syphilis experiment UM
Speaker 1: as a reason for their mistrust. Now, is there any
Speaker 1: kind of data available in terms of, say, the percentage
Speaker 1: or proportion of medical professionals or healthcare workers who aren't
Speaker 1: willing to be vaccinated. I haven't found any reliable data
Speaker 1: that show how many medical professionals want nothing to do
Speaker 1: with this, And I think that's for a couple of reasons. Um,
Speaker 1: we're so busy surveying the general population. Number one and
Speaker 1: sixty of the general population says that they wanted Among
Speaker 1: the professionals who are saying no, Also, they don't want
Speaker 1: their names necessarily linked to this in print or anywhere else,
Speaker 1: for fear of UM being made an example of, or
Speaker 1: maybe for fear of losing their jobs. Now in the
Speaker 1: vaccine rollout, UM, certainly there have been these attempts, as
Speaker 1: we've already discussed, to you know, showcase the solid science
Speaker 1: behind the vaccines, the safety behind the vaccines. But in
Speaker 1: terms of perhaps encouraging these healthcare professionals or medical professionals
Speaker 1: to receive the vaccine. Are there any types of incentives
Speaker 1: that organizations, or even say the CDC has done to
Speaker 1: try and encourage this particular group to receive the vaccine? Remember,
Speaker 1: the federal government left vaccinations to the states to sort out,
Speaker 1: and now states are kind of wringing their hands pulling
Speaker 1: out their hair with this effort, although most of them
Speaker 1: say that they're starting to get it under control. The
Speaker 1: federal government has suggested for employees, say of a nursing home,
Speaker 1: who are saying no thank you, to hold a pizza
Speaker 1: party or offer some kind of raffle incentive to get
Speaker 1: folks more interested in this, which is to me, is
Speaker 1: kind of an interesting approach when you're talking about something serious,
Speaker 1: something so serious, to say, hey, maybe a pizza party
Speaker 1: will help. On that note, on more of the say
Speaker 1: risk issue, Can a medical professional be fired for refusing
Speaker 1: to be vaccinated? Yes, a medical professional can be fired,
Speaker 1: But there's a couple of components to this. Workers can
Speaker 1: cite a disability or a religious belief, and that brings
Speaker 1: us into the reasonable accommodation territory. So in this case
Speaker 1: you would have to say I object to this because
Speaker 1: I have a disability and it's going to be made worse.
Speaker 1: So then your employer needs to turn around and said, okay,
Speaker 1: well can you work from home or can you mask
Speaker 1: constantly and take other steps? And this is where it
Speaker 1: can get harry in court in the US Eighth Circuit
Speaker 1: Court of Appeals took the case of an employee. She
Speaker 1: was a medical employ who said no to a rebella
Speaker 1: vaccine that was required by her employer. She was dismissed.
Speaker 1: She said that she had allergies and sensitivities and was
Speaker 1: afraid of a reaction. So the court took a look
Speaker 1: at this and determined that what she had was quote
Speaker 1: garden variety allergies and basically they told her get lost.
Speaker 1: So that was a health her firing as a health
Speaker 1: I mean, do you think that going forward, you know,
Speaker 1: as vaccine roll out continues and ramps up, is there
Speaker 1: more that can be done to shore up confidence either
Speaker 1: amongst these healthcare professionals or even amongst the general population
Speaker 1: that these vaccines are indeed safe. I don't know about
Speaker 1: medical professionals, although some have said they're just taking a
Speaker 1: weight and see attitude that they're not necessarily constitutionally against
Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen vaccine. They say that they don't want
Speaker 1: to be the guinea pigs, So the wait a couple
Speaker 1: of weeks or a couple of months, um see if
Speaker 1: there's any widespread reported problems so far as your basic
Speaker 1: folks who don't want anything to do with it. It
Speaker 1: was suggested to me by an immunization professional yesterday that
Speaker 1: it can't be overstated how important that your local pastors
Speaker 1: or even your local sports heroes, maybe not like your
Speaker 1: NFL guy or your NBA guy or your women's soccer professional,
Speaker 1: but people in the community whom people look up to
Speaker 1: for them to get out and say, look, I took
Speaker 1: it and I'm okay, and you should too. That was
Speaker 1: a lease, young, And that's it for our show today.
Speaker 1: For coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus around the world,
Speaker 1: visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like
Speaker 1: the show, please leave us a review and a rating
Speaker 1: on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to
Speaker 1: help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily
Speaker 1: edition is produced by top for foreheads Magnus Hendrickson and
Speaker 1: me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Elise Young.
Speaker 1: Original music by Leo sidrin. Our editors are Rick Shine
Speaker 1: and Francesca Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.