An alarmingly low number of New York City nursing home staffers have been vaccinated for COVID-19, despite the danger the virus poses to elderly residents, a Post review of state Health Department data reveal.
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More than six months into New York’s vaccination campaign, nearly a third of workers at the city’s elder care facilities have still not gotten a jab – and at 16 of the city’s homes less than half are vaccinated, state Health Department records reveal.
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The biggest resistance was at the 280-bed Linden Nursing home in Brooklyn, where just 33% of staffers were vaccinated, well below the 60% inoculation rate for its residents. And that low number is an improvement from the 25% staff vaccination rate in May.
“Those low vaccination rates for nursing home staff are absolutely insane,” said Assemblyman Ron Kim, who chairs the State Assembly’s Aging Committee. “They had access to the vaccine before any of us. There should be a requirement for anybody working in these facilities to be vaccinated.”
These low vax numbers at nursing homes – where staff are not requited by law to be immunized from COVID-19 – come despite the acute vulnerability such facilities have to the disease.
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More than 15,000 residents died from the ailment in New York state, leading to a federal probe of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s handling of the elderly home residents during the early days of the pandemic.