Overcoming COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy
Sometimes a cliché is just right. The Sandtown neighborhood of West Baltimore, for example, does look like a war zone.
Most of the residents are African American, and what that means, not just here but nationally, is that they are being hospitalized and dying of COVID-19 at two to three times the rate of White Americans. Prison is a perfect breeding ground for the disease, but when ex-convicts come home to Sandtown, they re given a gentler euphemism: Returning citizens. We still have massive unemployment within the community. We have returning citizens, the Reverend Derrick DeWitt said.
Nursing homes make big push to change minds of workers who refused vaccination
Bonuses, free TVs and paid time off are among the incentives nursing homes are offering to persuade staff members to get vaccinated.
In nursing homes across the country, workers have been more reluctant than residents to be vaccinated. Chelsea Stahl / NBC NewsJan. 17, 2021, 9:30 AM GMT / Updated Jan. 21, 2021, 2:16 PM GMTBy Suzy Khimm
The pandemic has taken a deadly toll on A.G. Rhodes Cobb, a nursing home on the outskirts of Atlanta. Twelve residents have died after contracting Covid-19. Forty-four staff members have fallen ill.
But despite their up-close look at the virus’s impact, most workers at the facility have been reluctant to get vaccinated. At the three clinics held last month at A.G. Rhodes Cobb and two other facilities in Georgia run by the same company, about 30 percent of staff members chose to get vaccinated, while 57 percent of residents opted in, according to management.
Nursing home offers staff bonuses, other incentives to get COVID-19 vaccine
A.G. Rhodes decided to sweeten the deal by offering raffle prizes to staff members, $500 bonuses, TV sets, and paid time off to staff who get the vaccine. Author: Natisha Lance (11Alive) Updated: 10:48 PM EST January 20, 2021
ATLANTA The COVID-19 vaccine was expected to be the lightening rod to help protect the elderly in nursing homes from the virus. However, some staff members are not so eager to sign up.
One group of nursing homes are now offering incentives to get more staff members vaccinated.
A.G. Rhodes is doing what it can to make the COVID-19 vaccine enticing to apprehensive staff members. Across its three locations, 33 percent of staff and 62 percent of residents have received the Pfizer vaccine.