Only 49 percent of Ochsner system staff have been vaccinated despite being eligible to be vaccinated for several weeks.
Ochsner CEO Warner Thomas said that’s problematic because the vaccine was more readily available for workers several weeks ago than it is today now that members of the public are eligible.
“I am surprised that we are only at 49.1 percent, I would have thought we would be higher,” said Thomas. “We offered it pretty widely pretty early on to a lot of folks.”
Ochsner Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Hart said one of the most common concerns they’re hearing is coming from younger workers who are concerned the vaccine will impact their fertility.
“Because of all of the false information I would say on the internet about fertility and that sort of thing our workforce does have a lot of young staff that have concerns about that,” said Hart who added the American College of Obstetrics does recommend the vaccine.
There’s also indecision from some staff about which vaccine to take. Ochsner Infectious Disease Specialist Dr. Sandra Kemmerly said the best vaccine to take is the one you are offered.
Hart said some staff members are also concerned about how quickly the vaccine was developed and they’re trying to teach the staff the speed was in part due to how easy it was to find test subjects.
“When you are doing this in the middle of the pandemic there are plenty of patients with the disease so it does not take long to figure out does this vaccine work or does it not work,” said Hart.
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