Workers and residents at nursing homes have raised concerns as the BioNTech and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines start to roll out in the United States.
Some residents and workers have expressed skepticism of getting vaccinated — the side effects are among their top concerns.
According to the Associated Press, individuals living and working in nursing homes question if adequate testing was conducted on older people, if enough is known about side effects and if the shots could do more harm than good.
“You go get that first and let me know how you feel,” said Denise Schwartz, whose 84-year-old mother lives at an assisted living facility in East Northport, N.Y., and plans to decline the vaccine. “Obviously it would be horrible for her to get COVID, but is it totally safe for someone who’s elderly and in fragile health?”
States across the country have begun receiving doses of the BioNTech-Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it on Friday for emergency use.
The first doses of the vaccine are for medical frontline health care workers and long-term care residents and are set to pour into all designated vaccination centers, pharmacies, and healthcare facilities within three weeks.
