arrow Nursing home residents wait on line to receive a COVID-19 vaccine at Harlem Center for Nursing and Rehabilitation, January 15, 2021. Yuki Iwamura/AP/Shutterstock
New York City had some of the lowest vaccination rates for both nursing home staff and workers of any region in the state, according to new data released by the state this week. Sixty-five percent of residents and 40 percent of workers had received shots as of Wednesday. The North Country and Capital Regions had the highest vaccination rates.
Overall, the data show that residents at long-term care facilities are taking the vaccines in droves, while staff at skilled nursing facilities lag behind. Statewide, 72 percent of residents and 44 percent of workers had been vaccinated.
arrow The Brookdale University Medical Center line Fred Mogul / Gothamist / WNYC
Freezing weather couldn’t stop 77-year-old Betsey Smith from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, even though it meant waiting more than two hours outside Brookdale University Medical Center in Brownsville, Brooklyn. She was one of hundreds of people on line. It s not too bad you just have to move your legs to keep warm, said Smith, an African-American woman who lives in nearby East New York. I know some people say they re not going to take this COVID vaccine, but I think it s important.”
In a bid to aid equitable access and combat vaccine hesitancy, Brookdale is trying an open-line approach rather than the pre-registered appointments system used by other hospitals.
Hesitant Health Care Workers Are Slowing Down Vaccine Uptake
arrow NYC Mayor s Office
New York City hospital administrators always knew that some members of the general public would hesitate to get coronavirus vaccines, but they anticipated that resistance among their own employees would be modest. After all, their staff all work in the medical arena, and many see themselves as guardians of science.
But to the surprise of many New York health care leaders, more than half of their eligible employees have so far declined to get inoculated. It s taken me off guard, said LaRay Brown, the CEO of One Brooklyn Health, a network of three hospitals in central Brooklyn. I would ve thought with so many people having seen, having experienced, lived through, cared for patients with COVID that we would ve had a much more enthusiastic response initially and it hasn t been.