Tampa Bay Times
Florida’s first COVID-19 vaccine doses landed in Tampa Bay this week, poised for distribution to the people public health officials determined need it first.
Millions of healthcare workers and the residents of long-term care facilities will get vaccinated first. Next up will be essential workers, including firefighters, paramedics and police officers.
But when it’s their turn, will Tampa Bay’s first-responders get the shot?
A significant number of firefighters and officers said they weren’t interested or were undecided, according to surveys of local fire and police departments conducted in recent weeks.
In Pinellas County, 549 paramedics and emergency medical technicians who work for the county’s fire departments and ambulance company — about 40 percent of the 1,380 respondents — said they don’t want to get vaccinated. Another 28 percent, or 385 people, said they’re undecided. That means the number who do want the vaccine — 32 percent, or 446 people — were in the minority.