Photo: Aurelia Ventura / Impremedia / Real America News
Despite priority access and a wide variety of incentives, vaccination rates for police, firefighters, and correctional personnel in Los Angeles and California have lagged far behind the state average for residents adults, according to a poll conducted by the Los Angeles Times.
Around % of adult Californians and the 64% of Los Angeles residents of 16 years or more have received at least one dose of vaccine , but just a 51% of city firefighters and the 52% of Los Angeles Police Department Officers ( LAPD) have received at least one dose of the vaccine against coronavirus.
Less than 30% of County Sheriff’s Department personnel have received any vaccinations through employee clinics; some may have received the antidote elsewhere, but the department is not following up. As for state prison employees, a 52% are at least partially inoculated, but rates drop at certain facilities, with one site registering only the 24% of personnel fully immunized.
Emergency personnel interact regularly with the public and the fact that many remain unvaccinated is a growing source of tension among city officials, safety leaders public and its grassroots workforces. Now the debate turns to a troubling question: Are unvaccinated public safety employees a threat to public safety?
Analysts, Activists and specialists say that the reluctance to get vaccinated against COVID – 17 of police officers is a matter of public concern due to the activities they carry out, while some officials are increasingly considering vaccination mandates to as agency inoculation rates stabilize.
The reasons for the reluctance of those dedicated to safety mirror those of the general unvaccinated population. Some items that have had COVID – 17 feel that they are sufficiently protected by natural antibodies ; Others harbor political or conspiratorial beliefs that antigens are unnecessary, ineffective, or even dangerous.
Skepticism about antigens was identified among LAPD officials months ago, when a poll between 9, 500 department employees found that only the 60% were willing to receive the vaccine, around the 20% indicated that they needed more information and another 20% stressed that they would reject it.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 2, 700 LAPD agents have been infected and nine have died. Almost 1, 000 Los Angeles Fire Department (LAFD) elements tested positive and two died, while more than 16, 000 prison staff have been infected and 28 Have they died.
