With half the state’s nursing home workers having refused the COVID-19 vaccine, Gov. Kim Reynolds declined to say Wednesday whether employees at state-run care facilities should be required to get the vaccine.

The head of the Iowa Department of Public Health said she wants to make sure state workers caring for elderly and disabled individuals are “comfortable” with the vaccine and capable of making “the decisions that are best for them.”

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Many of the workers at Iowa’s state-run facilities are caring for elderly individuals and people with underlying health conditions for whom the coronavirus is particularly dangerous. According to state and federal data, 42% of the Iowans who have died of coronavirus were residents of care facilities.

At a press conference Wednesday, Reynolds said that about 50% of the workers in all of the state’s long-term care facilities, the vast majority of which are privately run, refused the vaccine during the initial roll-out this month. Some who previously refused now say they plan to get the vaccine in the weeks ahead.

Asked whether the state should make vaccination a condition of employment for working in a state-run health care facility, Reynolds referred the question to Kelly Garcia, director of both the Iowa Department of Human Services and Iowa Department of Public Health.

more...https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2021/01/27/half-of-iowa-care-facility-workers-refuse-vaccination-creating-a-stockpile-of-unused-vaccine/?fbclid=IwAR2k5vwD_eCersz4Ni9liJ116RoFn0JxvBTZg9hOv6gPsGQ4A3gNjFYFohM